The Treasury has made a technical but consequential change to fuel duty law through the Excise Duties (Surcharges or Rebates) (Hydrocarbon Oils etc.) (Amendment) Order 2026. The instrument was made on 21 May 2026, laid before the House of Commons on 22 May 2026 and comes into force on 15 June 2026. According to the Explanatory Note published with the Order, it has two immediate effects: it extends the current fuel duty freeze and it revises the temporary rebate adjustment for certain rebated fuels. The drafting sits within the long-running rules created by the Hydrocarbon Oil Duties Act 1979 and the Excise Duties (Surcharges or Rebates) Act 1979. Rather than rewriting the base duty code, the Order changes how much duty is payable, or how much rebate is allowable, for a defined period.
Article 2 amends the earlier 2026 continuation order so that the 2022 fuel duty adjustment regime now remains in force until the end of 31 December 2026, rather than the end of 31 August 2026. Dates elsewhere in that instrument are moved on accordingly, with references to 1 December 2026 replaced by 1 January 2027. The same provision also removes paragraph (3) of article 1 and omits articles 4 to 7 of the earlier 2026 Order. On the face of the legislation, those are consequential edits designed to align the text with the new end date. For motorists, fuel suppliers and tax advisers, the practical result is continuity: the existing freeze remains in place for the second half of 2026 unless the Treasury brings forward a fresh change.
Article 3 makes the more specific rate adjustment. In the 2022 Order, rows (b), (c), (f) and (g) of Table C are amended so that the percentage addition in column (C) rises from 2.05 to 9.96, while the figure shown in column (D) falls from 0.1018 to 0.0648. The Order states that this applies to products charged with duty on or after 15 June 2026. The Explanatory Note says the change is intended to produce a temporary further reduction to the rebated rate for red diesel. In legal terms, the amendment covers gas oil, kerosene within section 13AA of the 1979 Act, biodiesel and bioblend. Read plainly, the temporary rebate becomes more generous and the effective amount of excise duty payable on those qualifying fuels becomes lower during the life of the Order.
This kind of measure appears repeatedly because section 2(2) of the Excise Duties (Surcharges or Rebates) Act 1979 sets a built-in time limit. An order made under that power expires after one year unless it is continued by a further order. The Explanatory Note records that the 2022 Order has already been rolled forward by S.I. 2023/329, S.I. 2024/300, S.I. 2025/228 and most recently S.I. 2026/164. That point matters for anyone tracking fuel tax policy. The government has not made a permanent structural change in this instrument. It has instead used the continuation mechanism allowed by the 1979 Act, which keeps the present arrangements alive for another fixed period while preserving room for a later fiscal decision.
For the wider public, the immediate effect is straightforward: there is no scheduled rise in the frozen fuel duty position on 15 June 2026. For operators that still lawfully use rebated fuels, the position is more specific. Where duty is charged on or after 15 June 2026, the amended table points to a lower effective duty amount for the qualifying products covered by article 3. The legal design is also worth noting. As the Explanatory Note explains, these adjustments are made as percentage deductions from the amount payable, or additions to the amount of rebate allowable, and they remain within the statutory 10 per cent limit. The rebate calculation is based on the base duty rates in the Hydrocarbon Oil Duties Act 1979, not on those rates after other temporary adjustments. That is why the Order alters both the percentage addition to the rebate and the figure shown for the resulting duty payable, so that the legislation is easier to read in practice.
The Treasury has said a Tax Information and Impact Note for the instrument will be published on GOV.UK under amended fuel duty rates for 2026 to 2027. That document should give a fuller account of expected Exchequer effects and any operational issues for businesses dealing in rebated oils. For now, S.I. 2026/555 is best read as a continuity measure with one targeted rate change. It gives fuel distributors, affected sectors and professional advisers a clear date line: the current arrangements run to 31 December 2026, with 1 January 2027 now the next formal break point unless the Treasury makes another continuation order.