Right-touch Regulation
Fall 2015
Vol. 31 No. 3
ISSN 0821-6320
Good regulators support
professionalism
Harry Cayton
Good professionals reflect on their own
practise; they ask themselves, did I do that
right, could I do it better, what can I learn from
my mistakes?
Good regulators do the same. They are
committed to reflective regulation, to
remembering they are there to support
professionalism not to replace it with rules.
Right-touch regulation is a way of
thinking about the regulatory task.
It doesn’t provide the solution to
a regulatory problem but it does
provide a systematic approach
to the way regulators should go
about their work.
Five years ago the Professional Standards
Authority in the UK published Right-touch
regulation. It was a response to a growing
sense that the UK burden of regulation wasn’t
directed in the right places or in the right way.
The banking crisis had shown us that light
touch regulation had failed and the scandal of
poor care in a Mid Staffordshire hospital that
multiple regulators and numerous inspections
could still miss the point.
Right-touch regulation is a way of thinking
about the regulatory task. It doesn’t provide
the solution to a regulatory problem but
it does provide a systematic approach to
the way regulators should go about their
work. Since 2010 it has been widely used
and found useful by regulators around the
world. Its principles have been adopted by
the regulators of nurses in British Columbia,
doctors in Ireland, the Human Tissue Authority
in the UK and the Health Practitioners
Regulatory Agency in Australia amongst many
others.
In August 2015, a revised edition of Righttouch regulation was published. Having
learned from those who have used it, having
identified some gaps, as well as finding that
the overall framework has stood up well to
scrutiny and practical application, opportunity
to continue to strengthen the model existed. In
particular this next version develops thinking
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about how to evaluate risk, drawing on the
recent work of Malcom Sparrow at Harvard.
So what are the enduring principles of Righttouch regulation? They are:
• Identify the problem before the solution
• Quantify and qualify the risks
• Get as close to the problem as possible
• Focus on the outcome
• Use regulation only when necessary
• Keep it simple
• Check for unintended consequences
• Review and respond to change.
continued on next page
CONTENTS
Legislative Reform . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Policy Changes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Learning in Practice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Legislative Reform . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Regulatory Changes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
GF2 Project Update . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Strengthening the veterinary profession through quality practice and public accountability.
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