The Provision of Services (Amendment and Transitional Provision) Regulations 2026 were made on 15 April 2026, laid before Parliament on 21 April 2026 and will come into force on 1 October 2026. The instrument extends across England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. The parliamentary sift requirements were recorded as satisfied on 24 March 2026, and the regulations are made under sections 12, 14 and 20 of the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Act 2023. According to the text published on legislation.gov.uk, the measure amends the Provision of Services Regulations 2009 rather than replacing them outright. The Explanatory Note says the policy aim is to restate, revoke, or revoke and replace secondary assimilated law while bringing the 2009 regime into closer alignment with the United Kingdom's domestic regulation commitments in its Free Trade Agreements.
One of the clearest legal changes sits in the definitions. The instrument inserts a definition of when an application is 'complete for the purposes of processing' and rewrites the terms 'provider' and 'recipient' so they refer to persons providing, offering, using, or wishing to use a service in the United Kingdom. The Explanatory Note states that these amendments remove nationality-based distinctions that no longer operate in practice. The regulations also omit paragraphs (3) to (5) of regulation 5 and remove regulation 13, alongside a linked drafting amendment in regulation 14. The practical effect is to recast the 2009 text around the current domestic position rather than older retained EU wording.
Fees under authorisation schemes are also tightened. From 1 October 2026, any charge imposed by a competent authority must be reasonable and proportionate to the cost of the relevant procedures and formalities, must not exceed those costs, and, where the charge relates to deciding an application, must only cover the work needed to determine that application. For providers, that gives a clearer statutory test for challenging excessive or poorly evidenced charges. For competent authorities, it places more weight on showing that fee structures are tied to actual administrative costs under the scheme, rather than broader overheads or loosely defined processing activity.
The instrument also resets the timing rules for authorisation decisions. Regulation 19 is amended so that applications must be processed as quickly as possible and, in any event, within a reasonable period from the point at which an application is complete for the purposes of processing. Any extension to that period must be notified in writing, with reasons, before the original deadline expires. This is more than a drafting adjustment. It separates simple receipt of an application from formal confirmation that the file is complete. For competent authorities, that means case-management systems will need to record both events clearly. For applicants, it means the statutory processing clock does not begin until the authority has confirmed that all required information and documents are in place.
New regulations 20, 20A, 20B and 20C then set out a fuller procedural code. Competent authorities must acknowledge applications in writing as quickly as possible. Where completeness is still being checked, applicants must be told that review is under way and that the processing period has not yet begun. Where an application is complete, the authority must send notice confirming that status, the start date and length of the processing period, and the means of redress if there is a dispute. Where an application is incomplete, the authority must say so, identify what is missing, and, where practicable, allow the applicant to supply the outstanding material without making a new application. If further information is permitted, the request must be limited to the matters identified, a reasonable deadline must be set, and the applicant must be told what happens if that deadline is missed. In practice, that should reduce avoidable restarts in licensing and approval processes covered by the 2009 regime.
The same package also deals with refusals, resubmissions and access to information. Rejected applicants must be told in writing, as quickly as possible, that the application has failed, why it has failed, and, where relevant, how it may be resubmitted. A competent authority is expressly prevented from blocking a fresh application solely because an earlier one was rejected. Decisions to grant or refuse must be notified within a reasonable period and, in any event, by the end of the stated processing period, unless the application is treated as deemed granted under regulation 19(5). Applicants also gain a clearer right to status updates on request. The regulations require authorities, where reasonably practicable, to allow applications to be submitted and processed throughout the year, to provide sufficient application windows where fixed periods apply, and to run required examinations at reasonably frequent intervals. The text goes further by requiring acceptance of examination requests in electronic format and by directing authorities to consider electronic means in other parts of the examination process.
Transparency duties are expanded as well. Regulation 36 is rewritten so that competent authorities must provide, or make accessible, a broader set of information in electronic form to the Secretary of State, either through the electronic assistance facility or on their own website. That includes contact details, applicable procedures and formalities, technical standards, the documents needed for an application to be treated as complete, submission windows, processing times, charging information, duration and renewal rules, appeal routes, compliance arrangements, and, where relevant, opportunities for public participation. The revised text also requires publication of whether an authorisation can be deemed granted and, if not, which overriding reasons relating to the public interest are relied upon. For implementation, the transition rule is direct: any application received before 1 October 2026 will continue to be decided under the 2009 Regulations as they stood immediately before commencement. That avoids moving live cases mid-process onto a new procedure. Competent authorities will now need to review application forms, acknowledgement templates, published scheme material and website content ahead of October. The instrument was signed by Blair McDougall, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department for Business and Trade, and the Explanatory Note states that no full impact assessment has been produced because no significant effect on the private, voluntary or public sector is expected.