Business rules register

Keep every rule the process must follow in one place, one rule per row, with the words of the law or guidance beside it.

From the first source you read to the last test you write. Inputs: the source register. Feeds: decision tables, requirements, non-functional requirements, the BRD, tests, the change request and the review exercise.

• Write one rule per row, and split any rule that needs "and" twice.
• Copy the exact words into the quote column and mark every cut.
• Say which part of the scope the rule applies to, wherever the parts differ.
• Tag the row, and name the clause, paragraph or decision in the source column.
• Say whether the system, people or both enforce the rule.
• Link the rows that use it, or write why none does.

1. Show me the words in the law for this rule. Answered in Quote (verbatim) column, with the URL and the date last checked beside it.
2. Is each rule one rule? Answered in Rule column. A row holds one rule, or the duties that one part of a source sets for one notice or one procedure, one sentence each. Examples are BR-41 (s.17, the refusal notice) and BR-51 (chapter 5 of the Code, the internal review).
3. Which rules are law, which good practice, which your own choice? Answered in Tag column. MINE appears only with a decision in the source column: BR-19, BR-21, BR-22 and BR-56 to BR-59.
4. Which does the system enforce, and which stay with people? Answered in Enforced by column. Judgement stays with people, as in BR-39 and BR-42; dates and counts go to the system, as in BR-17 and BR-18.
5. Where does a rule apply to only part of the scope? Answered in Applies to column. Third-party consultation, for example, is BR-43 for FOIA and BR-62 for the EIR. Information the council does not hold is BR-02 for FOIA and BR-64 for the EIR.

• A paraphrase that drifts from the quote. You can spot it when the rule claims something, or leaves out something, that the words beside it say.
• Rules written as requirements: the row starts "the system shall", but a rule says what must be true, whoever enforces it.
• One row covering two sets of rules where they differ: the row needs "or" to say whom it binds.
• No date of the last check: nobody can say whether the words are still current.
• A local choice written as if it were law: the row has no quote and names no decision.

• A rule that comes only from FOIA guidance applies to FOIA. Where the EIR have their own source, it is cited; where they do not and the process still treats both alike, the rule carries MINE and the decision (DEC-03, DEC-07). Rejected: "Both" for every rule the process applies to both regimes, which would hide where the EIR have no source of their own.
• No specimen request crosses a one-off day. The only one-off day in the GOV.UK list from 2024 onwards is Monday 15 June 2026 (Scotland), before the snapshot GUIDE SRC-08. BR-58 is there for the day the list gains a new one (RSK-02). Rejected: dropping BR-58 because no example uses it, which would leave the next one-off day without a rule (DEC-12).
• BR-60 to BR-67 were added last and keep their numbers. The Family column groups them; IDs are never renumbered. Rejected: renumbering by family, which would break the references in every other file.
• BR-25, BR-38 and BR-67 stay in the register although release 1 charges nothing (DEC-02). They are still the law, and REQ-35 records that the requirement for them is Won't (release 1). Rejected: deleting them, which would make the register describe the system instead of the law.
• Every source was checked again before issue, and "Last checked" gives the date of that check. The quotes in BR-64 to BR-67 were taken on 30 September 2026 from the text in force on 29 September 2026, which is the same on both days (SRC-03). A check that changes no words does not make a new version, so the history still ends at 1.1. Rejected: a new version for every check, which would change the version number with no change request to justify it (document 20).