Industry Regulations

Regulations are the legals involved in making sure your business complies with the law. This includes regulations involved in registering a company, managing employees, privacy regulations, trade marks, and consumer law. These general regulations impact all businesses, and we talk about them throughout this guide.

However, specific industries can have specific regulations too. This chapter is about how industry-specific regulations can impact your business.

Industry regulations

Many industries have specific regulations that apply to businesses who operate within it. Regulations can be both region-based (in that they only apply to particular areas) or they can apply UK wide, and they may sometime require that certain businesses have a licence or permit in order to operate.

For example:

• Businesses that service alcohol may require a liquor licence.
• Businesses that provide therapeutic goods may be subject to MHRA requirements.
• The building and construction industry has building regulations.
• Financial services businesses may be regulated by FCA.
• Telco businesses may have to comply with the Communications Act 2003.
• Manufacturing businesses need to comply with product safety laws.

If regulations specifically apply to your industry, it’s really important that you are on top of them, as they may have a significant impact on your business operations or your business model and can be crucial for your business’ success.

To give you an idea of how industry regulations can affect businesses, we’ve set out below a couple of examples of the regulations that apply in different industries.

Accommodation and food industry

If you run a hotel, motel, restaurant, cafe, bar or similar business, there are a range of industry specific regulations that may affect the way you operate.

Some of the key regulations include:

• Consumer Rights Act 2015
• Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008
• Food Safety Act 1990
• Food Safety and Hygiene Regulations
• General Product Safety Regulations 2005
• Packaging (Essential Requirements) Regulations 2015
• Various licences and permits

Finance and insurance services

If you run a business that takes deposits, issues shares, provides insurance or superannuation products, or otherwise undertakes financial service activities there are a range of industry specific regulations that may affect the way you operate.

Some of the key regulations include:

• Financial Services and Markets Act 2000
• Consumer Credit Act 1974
• Banking Act 2009
• Insurance Act 2015
• Pension Schemes Act 2021

Manufacturing industry

If you run a business that manufactures food, beverages, textiles, leather, clothing footwear or other similar products there are a range of industry specific regulations that may affect the way you operate.

Some of the key regulations include:

• Consumer Rights Act 2015
• Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008
• Food Safety Act 1990
• Weights and Measures Act 1985
• Food Safety and Hygiene Regulations
• General Product Safety Regulations 2005
• Packaging (Essential Requirements) Regulations 2015
• Licences and permits (e.g. a licence to manufacture therapeutic goods)

In conclusion…

In this chapter we’ve learned about what industry specific regulations are and explored some examples of regulation that affects some different industries.

It is a good idea to research what regulations apply in your industry so you can make sure your business operations are compliant and your business model is legal. If you’re confused by all the different industry regulations, you should seek specialist legal or professional compliance advice.