Regulators - First Report
Here you can browse the report which was ordered by the House of Lords to be printed 23 October 2007.
CONTENTS
Terms of Reference
ABSTRACT
CHAPTER 1: SUMMARY OF CONCLUSIONS AND
RECOMMENDATIONS
Regulators' statutory remits
Working methods and value for money
Regulators' use of Impact Assessments (IAs)
The relationship between regulators and the
regulated
The protection of the consumer interest,
the citizen interest, and the public interest
Co-operation between regulators
The relationship between regulators and Government
The accountability of regulators
The promotion of competition by regulators
Competition in the water sector
Regulators' attempts at de-regulation
The impact of regulators on the competitiveness
of UK firms
CHAPTER 2: BACKGROUND
The history of the regulators
The Formation of this Select Committee
What this Committee set out to achieve
Structure of this Report
CHAPTER 3: STATUTORY REMITS
Table 1: Regulators' years of inception and
establishing legislation
What constitutes an effective statutory remit
for a regulator?
What are the similarities and differences
between the regulators' various statutory remits?
Table 2: Summary of Economic Regulators'
Statutory Duties
Are the statutory remits of the regulators
suitable for the purpose intended?
Do the remits need re-writing/tidying up?
Do the regulators interpret their remits
appropriately and effectively?
CHAPTER 4: HOW REGULATORS WORK—SELF-DISCIPLINE
AND SELF-EVALUATION
Do the regulators provide value for money
in terms of the efficiency of their operations? Have they succeeded
in avoiding excessive bureaucracy and regulatory creep?
Table 3: Total operating costs out-turn
by regulator by financial year (£000s)
What use do regulators make of light touch,
principles-based and risk-based regulation and to what effect?
Risk-based regulation
Principles-based regulation
Are IAs an effective regulatory tool?
Are IAs being used to good effect by regulators?
Box 1: Recommendations of the NAO Report
Assessing regulatory decisions post-implementation
CHAPTER 5: HOW REGULATORS WORK—RELATIONSHIPS
WITH REGULATED AUTHORITIES AND CONSUMERS
Have the regulators built effective working
relationships with the industries they regulate (both with incumbents
and competitors)? What is the nature of such an 'effective
working relationship'?
Have the regulators developed satisfactory
consultation procedures?
Opinions
Should regulators distinguish between the
consumer/public/ citizen interest?
How are consumer interests protected in the
regulatory state?
Table 4: Models of Consumer Representation
Are the consumer appeals processes (Ombudsmen
etc) working well?
CHAPTER 6: HOW REGULATORS WORK—COOPERATION
BETWEEN REGULATORS AND THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN REGULATORS AND
GOVERNMENT
Do regulators work together to ensure
best practice is shared?
Do regulators work effectively with the competition
authorities? Is concurrency working?
What is the nature of the relationship between
regulators and government departments? Are the regulators sufficiently
independent from the Government?
Table 5: Status of the regulators
How will Parliament ensure the accountability
of regulators?
CHAPTER 7: COMPETITION AND COMPETITIVENESS
Have the regulators successfully promoted
competition in the sectors they regulate?
Why has competition failed to develop in
the water sector?
Have regulators successfully de-regulated
in areas where it is possible for them to do so?
Will it ever be possible for sectoral regulators
to disappear completely?
Figure 1: Staff employed by economic
regulators
Collectively do the regulators add to the
competitiveness of UK firms or detract from it?
APPENDIX 1: List of Members
APPENDIX 2: List of Witnesses
APPENDIX 3: Calls for Evidence
APPENDIX 4: National Audit Office Report
on Regulators' use of Impact Assessments
APPENDIX 5: Regulators' Operating Costs
APPENDIX 6: Chapter 10 of the Constitution
Committee Report
APPENDIX 7: Section 66E of the Water Industry
Act 1991 (as amended)
APPENDIX 8: Sectoral and Competition Regulation
in England and Wales—Diagrams
APPENDIX 9: Glossary
NOTE: The Report of the Committee is published in
Volume I (HL Paper 189-I); the evidence is published in Volume
II (HL Paper 189-II).
References in the text of the Report are as follows:
(Q) refers to a question in the oral evidence
(p) refers to a page of written evidence
MINUTES OF EVIDENCE - VOLUME II (HL 189-II)
WRITTEN EVIDENCE - VOLUME II (HL 189-II)
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