The rise of regulation of the public sector in the United Kingdom

Governments not only regulate business and society but also themselves in the form of regulation of publicly owned and/or funded bodies. Regulation of the public sector involves regulators operating at arms-length from those they regulate using systems of standard setting, monitoring and enforcement. In the past three decades in the UK, regulation has become increasingly important both in terms of absolute resources devoted to the activity and relative to other forms of control (particularly self-control by public sector professionals and control within large integrated bureaucratic structures). These trends have, in part, been fuelled by executive politicians' attempts to control public services and demands from citizens and users for better quality and efficiency. In the past decade, more explicit and extensive review of regulation of the public sector has been undertaken. Whilst not as developed as private sector Regulatory Impact Analyses these reviews have promoted the use of techniques including regulatory enforcement pyramids and risk based regulatory approaches. — Special issue: New patterns of institutions.