Response to the House of Lords Select Committee on Regulators report on UK economic regulators
The Government’s response to the House of Lords Select Committee on Regulators report on ten major UK economic regulators. The report considers their statutory remits, working methods and relationships. It also assesses the regulators' value for money.
The Government has issued its response to the House of Lords Select Committee on Regulators report on UK economic regulators.
Covering ten major UK regulators (Postcomm, Ofwat, Ofgem, the Civil Aviation Authority, Ofcom, the Financial Services Authority, the Office of Rail Regulation, The Pensions Regulator, the Office of Fair Trading and the Competition Commission), the report considers their statutory remits, working methods and relationships. Its also assesses the regulators' value for money.
A number of recommendations were made, which included an improvement in the processes of principles-based regulation, the use of Impact Assessments, scaling back of sectoral legislation and an overall contribution to UK competitiveness.
The Government response broadly agrees with these recommendations. It is keen to make progress across the range of regulatory issues, including competition aspects and better regulation. The Government strongly agrees that regulators should ensure that the benefits of regulation justifies the costs for business, and that regulations place the minimum burden of businesses compatible with achieving their objectives.
The Government supports regulators taking steps to identify unnecessary burdens and eliminate them wherever possible.
The Regulatory Enforcement and Sanctions Act, passed in 2008, introduced a duty on a number of these regulators to keep their regulatory functions under review and ensure that unnecessary burdens are not imposed or maintained.
The Government encourages regulators to work together where appropriate to assess the combined impact of their different activities on individual businesses and to minimise duplication in the timing and content in their investigations.
Overall, the Government has recognised the report's valuable contribution to the regulatory debate and the issues it raised on competition policy and better regulation.
Government response to the House of Lords Select Committee on Regulators: report on UK economic regulators (PDF, 168KB)
