Senior Legal Community Members In person roundtable discusses Good Regulation

Legal Community Members participated in an in person roundtable to discuss what makes for good regulation and a good regulator in partnership with KPMG.

Essentially the outcome was that the approach outlined in various BRC statements on regulation were reconfirmed. This is generally termed Outcome Based Collaborative Regulation (OBCR) - of which an ongoing example in development is the ABC approach of the Food Standards Agency.

Chris Carr, Director of Regulation in DBT, and Prof Chris Hodges, Chair of the Regulatory Horizons Council and adviser to many overseas governments, helped lead the discussion.

The overall conclusion was that the best regulators adopt a co-operative approach to enforcement, recognising that reputable businesses are more motivated by a desire to comply with the law and preserve their good reputation than the potential for large fines. A regulator is more likely to secure compliance quickly and regularly The approach of OPSS and the Primary Authority system - and the new approach proposed by the FSA (Food) were key examples of this approach. 

This approach requires regulators with overlapping responsibilities to work together and respect each other. Thus national regulators such as the CMA should embrace the potential to be supporting regulators in the PA system.

This approach also requires regular broad engagement between regulators and businesses on issues of concern and opportunities for businesses to secure good advice such as the CMA competition advice on sustainability - which it would be well advised to replicate in other areas of its activity - or the ASA/CAP advice on green claims advertisements.

Good regulation is designed to facilitate this approach with clarity on what the law requires - and in turn ensuring regulators do not impose conditions that go beyond the law through Guidance or undertakings that are not clear when they are voluntary rather than legal requirements.