Prominent Conservatives call for regulatory accountability

Members of the Conservative Party, which include former ministers and a previous chair of the CMA, have called for greater parliamentary accountability of the UK’s regulators, a new report has revealed. 

This report, ‘The Purpose of Regulation’, offers a systematic appraisal of the UK’s regulators covering key economic sectors including energy, housing, and financial services.

It also identified a number of systemic 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.

The report aims to show how powerful lines of parliamentary accountability across the regulators are essential in order for the UK to “realise its long-term growth ambitions”.

Bim Afolami MP, chair of the Regulatory Reform Group, said: “Unaccountable regulators are directly hindering the UK’s growth prospects. Regulators have the potential to be key drivers of the government’s long-term ambitions for the UK, not to mention enablers of economic growth, but without adequate oversight from parliament, this potential has been lost. 

“This report is not proposing that regulatory reform holds all the answers to unlocking growth in the UK, but it is certainly a start.”