Nominet (the .co.uk registry) has commenced a 3 month consultation regarding the introduction of .uk directly (... while also adding some security features
the faqs cover most of the questions
"The proposed service is primarily aimed at those living or doing business in the UK - a UK service address will be required in order to register a domain. "
"We have viewed this as an addition to the .uk namespace, rather than a transition, so this led us away from automatically ‘grandfathering’ every existing domain."
"Domain names registered at the third level would constitute an unregistered right provided evidence of use could be shown prior to the qualifying date."
