Research On Independent Regulatory Agencies In Britain

Definitions and characters of independent regulatory agencies (IRAs) are different among countries, but it's sure that IRAs are different from traditional government departments for independent status and mixed power, which can solve problems of government intervening in the market by administrative power, and then they are chosen for optimization of regulation. IRAs originate in the United States, and then spread in Europe. Britain is the first country to set up IRAs and has the largest number of IRAs in Europe. In Britain IRAs'establishment and development are associated with the process of the privatization. They are created by the legislature, own independent status, and have both economic and social responsibilities. And the latter responsibility is priority in practice. They have been granted regulatory power covering legislation, jurisdiction and administration, break the separation of powers and cause problems of the legitimacy of democracy. Independence and accountability are two elements of IRAs'operation. Because of the independent status that breaks the traditional system of separation of powers, IRAs promote the optimization of regulation and thus independence is IRAs'soul. Because of the needs of independence, IRAs have been given wide discretionary power and they are likely to be monsters out of control, so accountability are required. Britain guarantees IRAs'independence and accountability through institutional arrangements, including ensuring their regulatory policy enforcement independent from personnel organization and financial sources, and ensuring their power under control by legislative, administrative, judicial, social and internal measures.Our country's regulatory reform is in the lurch that roles of government, regulators and enterprises are still blended and the regulatory bodies are ineffective. The current situation is somewhat similar to Britain's privatization period, thus to establish independent regulatory agencies may be an good idea to solve the problems of regulatory reform. On the one hand, IRAs solely work on regulation that can maintain a separation between government and enterprises and promote transformation of government functions; on the other hand, IRAs'professional advantages will improve regulatory efficiency. Learning establishment and operation experience from IRAs in Britain, we can provide suggestions for regulatory reform and construct our own IRAs from aspects of definituding legal status, distributing power in reason, safeguarding independent regulation and strengthening control and supervision.