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Documents

Energy and environmental policy: the GB experience A Report for the Australian Energy Market Commission

This Report provides an account of the development of GB energy and environmental policies over recent decades, with a focus on the extent to which they have worked together to bring about best-feasible trade-offs between major policy objectives such as reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and promotion of the long-term interests of energy consumers

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February 28, 2017
Research Reports

The provision of nutrition supply services: an assessment of current NHS procurement arrangements in England (A report for Abbott Laboratories Ltd)

This Report evaluates current National Health Service procurement arrangements for nutritional supply services in England. The principal focus is on contractual procurement of these services in the secondary care sector, but, since the economic effects of the secondary sector arrangements and their implications for the NHS depend crucially on how they function alongside primary care arrangements, it is necessary also to take account of the latter. Specifically, the assessment takes particular account of the economic linkages between procurement decisions in the two sectors, which give rise to a number of important issues and questions.

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October 1, 2015
close up photo of a wooden gavel
Research Reports

Understanding barriers to entry, exit and changes to the structure of regulated legal firms: Summary and main conclusions

Entry, exit and firm restructuring are important aspects of the ability of any market to respond and adapt to changing circumstances. The capacity to respond and adapt relatively quickly – often referred to as flexibility – is important for the effective performance of a market, particularly in periods of substantial change.

The study is concerned chiefly with barriers to entry, exit and ‘mobility’ (which includes business restructuring such as a merger) that may be caused or exacerbated by regulatory requirements, with particular reference to the barriers facing small solicitors’ practices

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December 31, 2013
close up photo of a wooden gavel
Research Reports

Understanding barriers to entry, exit and changes to the structure of regulated legal firms: Full report

The Regulatory Policy Institute was commissioned by the Legal Services Board (LSB), supported by the Law Society, to undertake a study of possible barriers to (a) entry, (b) exit, and (c) changes in the business structures of regulated solicitors’ firms/practices in England and Wales; and the findings of this study are set out in what follows. The focus of the work is, as was requested, on small solicitors’ practices, with particular attention given to the consideration of barriers to change that might either be caused or exacerbated by current regulatory arrangements, or that might be amenable to reduction via modification of those arrangements.

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December 31, 2013
white electric tower
Documents

Review of Guernsey’s utility regulatory regime

This report constitutes our assessment of Guernsey’s utility regulatory system as applied to the regulation of electricity, post and telecoms, and it includes recommendations for change to improve the framework and conduct of regulation. Although initially triggered by issues noted in the April 2010 Requête, the scope of the Review has broadened to take account of other structural, policy and institutional factors. We consider this broadening desirable, as any assessment of the effectiveness of a regulatory regime requires an examination not just of the regulator, but also of the broader policy and institutional structure of government within which regulation operates.

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October 15, 2010
people inside airport
Documents

Assessment of competition at Stansted airport

The CAA has asked us to consider the CC’s draft paper on the Assessment of Competition at Stansted Airport, which differs from the CAA’s own initial thinking to an extent that appears to lie well beyond a normal level of disagreement that might occur when two, independent authorities address a complex factual situation.

2. In what follows we seek to identify and understand the sources of these major differences, with a view to facilitating development of the most appropriate approach to regulation in the specific factual context of Stansted airport.

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August 31, 2008
roadworks in city
Documents

Review of the Regulatory Impact Assessments accompanying the introduction of the Traffic Management Permit Scheme (England) Regulations 2007

The Traffic Management Act 2004 (TMA) provided for the introduction of a number of measures intended to address problems associated with urban and inter-urban congestion on the road network. This included providing the potential for permit schemes to be introduced by highway authorities such that street works (for example, utility repair work that involves occupation of some part of the highway) could not be undertaken without a permit, and a fee could be levied for the provision of such a permit. Secondary legislation was required in order to allow for the introduction of permit schemes, and more detailed enabling provisions were subsequently introduced under the Traffic Management Permit Scheme (England) Regulations 2007 (hereafter referred to as „the permit scheme regulations‟).

This report provides a review of the Regulatory Impact Assessment that was prepared by the Department for Transport (DfT) in the development of the permit scheme regulations. Some comments are also provided on the relevance that the issues raised in this review have for ongoing and future policy developments with respect to permit schemes

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June 30, 2008
bt tower london uk
Documents

Reflections on policy issues raised by next-generation access networks in communications

The introduction of next-generation access networks (NGANs) in communications changes the market and technological context in which public policy operates. It does so in a way that, in terminology used in the economic analysis of innovation, can be said to be ‘drastic’ in nature. This poses a number of new challenges for the development of regulatory policy, some of which are identified and explored in this paper.

When new problems arise, one of the first analytical tasks for regulators is to discover perspectives that might be of assistance in thinking through the issues that emerge. These alternative ‘frames’, which will also be explored below, are not solutions to the policy problems, but rather are ways of approaching the issues to assist the development of policy positions.

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June 30, 2008
person holding drinking glass
Documents

Competition in the provision of water services: Executive summary

Our main conclusion is that competitive discovery processes have potentially very important roles to play in the water sector, particularly at the wholesale level, where we know that we know relatively little about the economic value of water, including its spatial and temporal variations, and how to use it most wisely.

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April 30, 2008
water drop
Research Reports

Competition in the provision of water services: Full report

This Report is published as a contribution to the current debate in the UK on the prospects for the development of competition in water, sewage and sewerage services (henceforth abbreviated to ‘water services’), and on the forms that such competition might take. It does not seek to cover all aspects of relevant policy in the sector, but rather focuses on a number of key issues, concepts and trade-offs that appear to be of central importance for policy development.

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April 30, 2008
unrecognizable woman walking on pavement between old urban house facades
Documents

Revising the Regulatory Impact Assessment: Response to the BRE’s consultation

Members of the Regulatory Policy Institute have been longstanding supporters of Cabinet Office initiatives to promote better regulation, from the earliest days of these exercises. The Institute has on occasion also undertaken research projects that have contributed to the initiatives. Whilst the following remarks are critical of the current proposals, they are nevertheless the views of ‘friends of the process’.

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October 31, 2006
Documents

Reverse eAuctions and NHS procurement: Full report

The primary focus of this paper is the contribution of “reverse eAuction processes”, characterised by on-line, descending price bidding, to NHS procurement strategies. There has for some years now been considerable interest in the use of such auctions in the procurement of goods and services by both private and public sector organisations. Over the last year or two, this interest has been particularly intense in the UK public sector, and it has been accompanied by claims of substantial gains when these types of arrangements are introduced.

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March 30, 2006
air air pollution chimney clouds
Documents

The regulation of radioactive waste management in the UK

The substantial quantities of radioactive waste which exist in the UK largely as a result of the activities of government agencies or government owned companies since the 1940s, raise important and difficult questions concerning how trade-offs between both the levels and distribution of costs and environmental quality/safety associated with different waste management decisions.

This paper is concerned with how the institutional arrangements for dealing with issues surrounding radioactive waste management can best be developed. Our main focus is on those factors that at other times and in other industries have been shown to influence regulatory developments.

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February 28, 2002
unrecognizable woman walking on pavement between old urban house facades
Documents

Political and regulatory risk: Is it a serious problem? Can it be limited? Report of the Risk Commission

The Regulatory Policy Institute’s Better Government Programme was established to focus on practical proposals for improving accountability and transparency in UK and EU policy and regulatory processes. Consideration of political risk – uncertainty arising from actions or the structure of policy or regulatory processes – falls naturally within that remit and is topical at a time when considerable attention is being paid to risk assessment and management as an integral part of directors’ and financiers’ duties.

The Risk Commission was originally assembled under the aegis of the Social Market Foundation. The work was subsequrntly transferred to the RPI

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January 1, 2000
a view of the whitehall court in england
Documents

Better Government Report: Political and regulatory risk: Summary

Consideration of political risk – uncertainty arising from actions or the structure of policy or regulatory processes – is topical at a time when considerable attention is being paid to risk assessment and management as an integral part of directors’ and financiers’ duties. The RPI assembled a group of politicians, former officials and Special Advisers, and corporate and City specialists to work with us in assessing the evidence.

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January 1, 2000
three assorted beverage bottles on brown wooden table
Documents

The effects of regulation in the UK beer market

From time to time UK governments and their agencies have been concerned about the level of competion in the beer market, and, in particular, whether competition is sufficiently effective to ensure that, given the government tax take, prices are kept low in relation to costs.

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January 31, 1994
Research Reports

Simplified procedures for network pricing

This paper sets out results from work in progress on the issue of tariff structures for access to, and use of, network facilities. Starting from a simple version of the notional path approach, it is argued that it is relatively straightforward to extend the method so as to incorporate genuine network features into the resulting tariff structures. The resulting approach is called least-cost notional flow analysis. The generalisation leads naturally to a tariff structure based on entry and exit charges. It also offers a framework in which conflicting objectives – such as cost reflectivitiy, cost recovery, spatial averaging of prices, ease of monitoring, etc. — can be traded-off in a relatively transparent way.

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May 31, 1992