The Communications and Digital Committee has published its report “Digital Regulation: joined-up and accountable”. The Committee says that regulators, government and Parliament must do more to ensure joined-up and effective regulation of the rapidly changing digital world.

According to the Committee, systems are not rigorous or accountable enough to address regulatory gaps and overlaps, and better processes, as well as regulators, industry and experts working more closely together, are needed to deal with emerging challenges, such as artificial intelligence advances.

In the Committee’s view, the new Digital Regulation Co-operation Forum (DRCF) is “a small step” in the right direction, but there is a lack of overarching coordination and oversight of regulatory objectives. While welcoming the DRCF’s collaborative work so far, the Committee is concerned that it lacks robust systems to coordinate objectives and to sort out potential conflicts between different regulators as the workload expands. It says that more measures are needed to boost the DRCF’s long-term effectiveness and accountability.

The Committee recommends that an independent chair of the DRCF is appointed to resolve conflicts between regulators and to be accountable to Parliament. Further, the Committee wants to see a new committee of MPs and peers set up to oversee digital regulation. To read the Committee’s news release in full and for a link to the report, click here.