New development: Recent changes to the UK's regulatory process

Abstract

The UK prime minister is committed to leading the first government ‘in modern history to leave office having reduced the overall burden of regulation rather than increased it’. In our paper in Public Money & Management in 2012 (Vol. 32, No. 4), we set out the role of the Regulatory Policy Committee (RPC) in the government's better regulation agenda (Gibbons and Parker, 2012). Since then a number of changes to the regulatory process has been introduced. In this article we describe the main changes to the UK's regulatory processes introduced since July 2012, including changes to the way the RPC operates.

Keywords:

• Impact
• oversight
• regulation
• regulatory policy
• UK

Notes

*For convenience, we use the term ‘department’ in this article as a short hand to include government agencies subject to the same regulatory processes. Also, when discussing OIOO/OITO the term ‘business’ is used as a short hand for business and civil society organizations. Correctly, OIOO/OITO applies also to measures affecting civil society organizations. However, it is the government's priority to reduce the burdens on business.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Michael Gibbons

Michael Gibbons is Chairman of the Regulatory Policy Committee.

David Parker

David Parker is Emeritus Professor Cranfield University, UK, and Member of the Regulatory Policy Committee.