Regulation is the supervision of a private or professional activity in the interests of the public as a whole, their welfare, their rights and their future, where those elements would be at risk were there no regulation [1].
So, regulators are the good guys – they help to keep us safe. Overwhelmingly, they are public servants who are more or less committed to what they do, and they try to do it to the best of their ability.
Often this is not a straightforward thing to do. They may have to work on complex issues, with sometimes limited training or resources. They may need confidence levels to challenge CEOs, professors and perhaps senior public servants or the military about their organization’s failure to comply with regulatory requirements. They are likely to have constant pressure for changes of structure in their own working arrangements; pressure to improve efficiency that puts their post at risk (and so their personal and family life under strain). And they may need, or choose to work long hours to achieve the personal goals at work. Such is the lot of the public servant.
And sometimes, fortunately rarely, they may (for whatever reason) exceed their powers or authority. Anyone can make a mistake. Very occasionally, a few behave badly deliberately. They abuse their powers and position of trust. And sometimes they are just plain incompetent. But let’s be clear: this can be said of doctors, pilots or policeman. It is an unwanted but unavoidable part of human nature that people sometimes get it wrong.
So where do the regulated turn in such cases? In modern societies, regulatory bodies will often have a complaints system. But do they really want to put their head above the parapet in this way? If they’re accusing the regulator of incompetence, corruption or just a minor lapse in concentration, is there a risk of retribution? If it is thought there could be, complaining to the regulator’s own organization may suddenly appear to be a less attractive option. So where else to go? In some cases (but not many) they can turn to an independent “ombudsman” [2].
Ombudsmen exist to deal with complaints from ordinary citizens and consumers about most public bodies and some services in the private sector.
The services provided by ombudsmen are free of charge.
But if there is no ombudsman? It’s difficult. But at last, now there is Quis-custodiet.com which exists to provide an evidence based commentary on the performance and reliability of some regulators.
17 August 2017
Reference
[1] . “Regulating the Regulators”. The Baroness Deech of Cumnor. Gresham College Lecture. 23 May 2012. Available here.
[2]. The Ombudsman Association. Available here
Quis-custodiet.com 