Government responses to proposals in House of Lords Industry and Regulators Committee report ‘Who Watches the Watchdogs’, 16 May 2024

This is the government's response, published 16 May 2024.

Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.

The government responds to each of the Committee's recommendations, committing to a range of measures under its Smarter Regulation programme while stating that it has "no plans to change" the process for pre-appointment scrutiny and "notes" the proposal for an Office for Regulatory Performance.

• On duties and objectives, the government will work with economic regulators to gather evidence on the effectiveness of their duties, and will develop a framework for monitoring and evaluating regulator statutory duties "where specific evidence of problems is identified".
• On a register of regulators, the government "intends" to publish one "by Autumn 2024", as an online dashboard setting out regulators, their purpose and statutory duties, and sponsor department.
• On an Office for Regulatory Performance, the government "notes" the proposal and will work with the Committee and the House Authorities to "explore the merits of each option". It favours a non-statutory Growth Duty Performance Framework for now but "will keep this under review".
• On appointments, the government says "There are no plans to change this process" for extending pre-appointment scrutiny, and that requiring an explanation for non-reappointment "runs contrary" to the Governance Code on Public Appointments.

Read the government's response ↗ Report an error