The House of Lords Industry and Regulators Committee has opened a new inquiry into the relationship between regulators and economic growth, in light of the Government’s ambition for regulators to support investment and innovation and drive growth.

The Committee will begin its new inquiry by hearing from academics in a live evidence session tomorrow and will examine what barriers regulators put in the way of economic growth and how regulators should balance the desire for growth with their other responsibilities, such as competition, environmental and consumer protections.

Issues the Committee will consider during the course of its inquiry include:

• the key challenges and trade-offs between growth and other objectives which regulators have;
• the strengthening of the Growth Duty;
• the role the Government can and should play in encouraging regulators to accept more risk;
• the funding of additional resources which may be required by regulators;
• how wider changes in data, technology and AI are changing how companies and regulators operate;
• legislative or policy change needed to reduce regulatory burdens.

The Committee will discuss whether it is possible to make regulatory processes quicker and cheaper while maintaining the same level of protections, and how the Government and Parliament should guide regulators on these trade-offs.

The session will begin at 10am on Tuesday 4 November when the Committee will hear from:

• Professor Sean Ennis, Director, Centre for Competition Policy
• Dame Julia Black, Professor of Law and Regulation, Oxford University (virtual).

Possible questions include:

• Has the Government been clear enough about its approach to achieving economic growth, and the role that regulators should play in it?
• How can the Growth Duty be strengthened meaningfully, and what impacts could this have on how regulators balance their competing priorities?
• How do you think wider changes in data, technology and AI are changing how companies and regulators operate? What opportunities do they provide to improve their efficiency or effectiveness?
• To what extent does the Government’s Regulation Action Plan provide a coherent strategy for ensuring that regulators drive growth?
• What can regulators can do to support growth?

In February 2024 under the previous Conservative Government, the Committee published a highly critical report warning that urgent reform was needed to improve the accountability and performance of UK regulators.

The Committee said at the time:

“Regulators now wield significant power and influence over the UK’s economy and everyday life.

“However, amid a series of high-profile failures, there are growing concerns about the functioning of the three-way relationship between the regulators, the Government, and Parliament, particularly the role and performance of regulators, their independence, and their accountability. If the integrity and legitimacy of the UK’s regulators are to be preserved, these concerns must be addressed.”

Click here to watch the evidence live on ParliamentLive TV