A think-tank report said the key objective for regulators should be the creation of public value - incorporating wider social benefits which were hard to value in monetary terms. The environmental benefits that would come from developing a low-carbon economy were a good example of public value in the energy industry.
Source: Paul Skidmore, Paul Miller and Jake Chapman, The Long Game: How regulators and companies can both win, Demos, available from Central Books (020 8986 5488)
Links: Report (pdf) | Demos press release
Date: 2003-Dec
The government said it accepted the majority of the recommendations by a committee of MPs on the public appointments system. It agreed that there should be a review of the definition and scope of public bodies. It also accepted a number of recommendations designed to encourage and improve diversity in public appointments, including developing and piloting shadowing, mentoring and board development schemes for groups that were under-represented on boards of public bodies. But it rejected proposals to give parliamentary select committees a veto over key public appointments. The Commissioner for Public Appointments expressed disappointment that the government had also not accepted the recommendation that her office should appoint and support all independent assessors for public appointments.
Source: Press release 17 December 2003, Cabinet Office (020 7261 8527) | Press release 17 December 2003, Office of the Commissioner for Public Appointments (020 7276 2625)
Links: Cabinet Office press release | OCPA press release (pdf) | Guardian report | MPs report
Date: 2003-Dec
The government accepted all of the recommendations in a taskforce report which said that greater awareness should be promoted of alternatives to 'classic regulation' of public services.
Source: Government Response to Better Regulation Task Force 'Imaginative Thinking for Better Regulation' Report, Cabinet Office (020 7261 8527)
Links: Response (pdf) | Taskforce report (pdf)
Date: 2003-Dec
A research study evaluated the effectiveness of scrutiny committees established as a result of the Local Government Act 2000. It found that performance management and evaluation techniques could be better used by councils to improve services, and that the scrutiny function was not operating as intended.
Source: Rachel Ashworth, Evaluating the Effectiveness of Local Scrutiny Committees, Economic and Social Research Council (01793 413000)
Links: Report (pdf) | Summary (pdf)
Date: 2003-Dec
The government published a revised regulatory reform action plan. New measures included continuing to simplify the range of education funding streams, and the performance monitoring regimes and inspection arrangements for schools; streamlining data flows and information requests in the National Health Service; implementing (as appropriate) the Carter Review of correctional services and a programme of police reform; and examining the scope for further extending freedoms and flexibilities in local government.
Source: Regulatory Reform: The Government s Action Plan, Cabinet Office (020 7261 8527)
Links: Action plan (pdf)
Date: 2003-Dec
A report attempted to chart the increasing number and variety of bodies involved in scrutiny of public bodies and services, and to set out their functions, powers and responsibilities.
Source: The Scrutiny Map, Centre for Public Scrutiny (020 7296 6835)
Links: Summary
Date: 2003-Oct
A committee of MPs said that new appointments procedures for public bodies established in the 1990s (based on merit and subject to independent scrutiny) had led to a 'considerable' overall improvement in the public appointments system. It made a series of recommendations designed to further improve the resilience and integrity of the process. It said that diversity on public bodies needed to be increased.
Source: Government by Appointment: Opening up the patronage state, Fourth Report (Session 2002-03), HC 165-I, House of Commons Public Administration Select Committee, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report | Guardian report
Date: 2003-Jul
The public appointments commissioner said that the standard of appointments to public bodies had improved in 2002-03.
Source: Eighth Report 2002-03, Office of the Commissioner for Public Appointments (020 7276 2625)
Links: Report (pdf) | OCPA press release (pdf)
Date: 2003-Jul
The government reportedly decided to keep a ban on the declaration of ministers' 'conflicts of interests', on the grounds that the 'frankness and candour' of the present system of disclosure (by ministers to their department's permanent secretary) could be jeopardised by publication. The parliamentary ombudsman reportedly threatened to resign over the issue.
Source: The Guardian, 10.7.03 | The Guardian, 23.7.03
Links: Guardian report 10.7.03 | Guardian report 23.7.03
Date: 2003-Jul
The parliamentary ombudsman published her Annual Report for 2002-03. She had dealt with 2,235 complaints, compared with 1,988 in the previous year. She said that the performance of parts of the Department for Work and Pensions which accounted for a third of all the complaints made to her - had caused particular concern. She reportedly demanded that the government 'stop delaying and interfering' with her investigations.
Source: Annual Report 2002-03, Office of the Parliamentary Ombudsman, TSO (0870 600 5522) | The Guardian, 11.7.03
Links: Report (pdf) | Report | Ombudsman press release | Guardian report
Date: 2003-Jul
A report assessed the practice of parliamentary audit in comparable jurisdictions.
Source: Oonagh Gay and Barry Winetrobe, Parliamentary Audit Scrutiny: Innovative and effective?, Constitution Unit/University of London, available from Imprint Academic (01392 841600)
Links: Constitution Unit homepage
Date: 2003-Jun
A report examined the institutional relationship between constitutional watchdogs and Parliament, both at Westminster and in the Scottish Parliament. It recommended more systematic use by Parliament of the information provided by constitutional watchdogs in annual reports and evidence sessions.
Source: Oonagh Gay and Barry Winetrobe, Officers of Parliament: Transforming the role, Constitution Unit/University of London, available from Imprint Academic (01392 841600)
Links: Constitution Unit homepage
Date: 2003-Jun
The Scottish Executive announced that full implementation of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 would take place by 1 January 2005 one year earlier than set out in the legislation.
Source: Press release 9.6.03, Scottish Executive (0131 556 8400)
Links: SE press release
Date: 2003-Jun
The government announced that private companies supplying public services (such as train operating companies and social landlords) will be subject to audit and inspection by the National Audit Office, reporting to Parliament.
Source: The Guardian, 11.2.03
Links: Guardian report
Date: 2003-Feb