Biggest barrier to effective regulation is adequate funding of regulators, not oversight

The Regulation Reform Group of Conservative MPs has released a report about the purpose of regulation in the UK.

The report says regulators are holding the economy back and says parliament should have greater oversight of them. But it makes no reference to the main problem with regulation in the UK, the funding and pay of regulators which has declined hugely in the last decade

Mike Clancy, General Secretary of Prospect union, said:

“For some Conservative MPs the answer to every problem seems to be to crack down on regulation, the supposed barrier to growth.

“This is the approach that brought us the banking crisis, sewage-filled rivers and seas, and left us struggling to cope when hit by the pandemic. Far from boosting growth long-term, it leaves us catastrophically vulnerable to shocks.

“The biggest barrier to effective regulation is the inadequate funding of regulators. Boosting budgets and paying a decent wage to staff is the real solution – one that is unsurprisingly missing from this short-sighted and disingenuous report.”