This week saw the launch of The Purpose of Regulation, a new report by the Regulatory Reform Group (RRG), which suggests the lack of democratic oversight of regulators is holding back UK productivity and economic growth.
Richard Fuller MP, a member of the RRG, said:
The UK regulatory system is being undermined by a democratic deficit that we have failed to address since Brexit.
After leaving the EU, we have handed our regulators huge powers over really significant parts of our economy, with little to no democratic oversight of how they are exercising these powers, or way of measuring their performance.
The Regulatory Reform Group is a caucus of Conservative parliamentarians including Chair Bim Afolami, Lord Andrew Tyrie, Richard Fuller, Vicky Ford, Alun Cairns, Stephen Hammond, James Wild, Sir Robert Buckland and Mark Garnier, who have come together to call for a systematic evolution of the regulatory system to one that is focused on consumer outcomes and has democratic accountability at its heart.
The group’s first report offers a systematic appraisal of the UK’s regulators and identifies a number of issues which fall into four main categories:
- a lack of strategic direction to and by the regulators;
- strained regulatory relationships - both between industry and regulators, and between regulators themselves;
- incomplete lines of accountability around the objectives set for regulators and the measurement of regulatory performance, and;
- the need to build up greater skills and knowledge within regulators and support them with sufficient resourcing.
Rather than advocating for a wave of deregulation, the group instead proposes a number of recommendations to help transition to a smarter and more democratically accountable approach to overseeing regulators.
The full report can be read at this link.
Richard recently asked the Prime Minister about the historical oversight of regulators and how they can play their part in ensuring economic growth. More information can be read here.
