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The Sixth Annual British Regulatory System Report Co-Authored by Tim Ambler

The sixth annual British Regulatory System report co-authored by Tim Ambler of London and Francis Chittenden of Manchester Business Schools, examines how the UK regulatory system works in practice and whether it follows the Government’s own guidelines. The report is published by the British Chambers of Commerce and begins with a brief review of previous recommendations and documents the progress made and where they stand now. It then focuses on the EU Impact Assessment process before turning to the UK.

Over the last decade regulation has become a major UK industry. Tens of thousands are employed not in commerce to grow GDP but to interfere in that process. Each regulation has a purpose and many contribute to national well being but “better regulation” in practice has come to mean “more regulation”. The Impact Assessment system designed to control the volume may have improved quality at the margins but the original purpose of Regulatory Impact Assessments, namely challenging the need for the regulation and the serious consideration of alternatives, has not been met. The National Audit Office has reached similar conclusions.

The report goes on to discuss how the weaknesses of the UK and the EU Impact Assessment systems are compounded by the lack of synchronisation between them.

The comparison of the EU and UK systems leads to a simple conclusion: the EU very rarely employs Impact Assessments for legislation, and even more rarely quantifies them thoroughly but, when it does so, the system works very well. Conversely, the UK goes through the motions with all relevant regulations but so superficially that the system does not work.

The research concludes that neither the UK nor the EU Impact Assessment systems are working effectively to challenge, inform and shape new regulations.

To view the report, click here

BCC Regulatory Systems

Created: Monday 31 March 2008

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