OECD Regulatory Policy Outlook Report

Trust thought for today - the role of governance in trust and trust in governance.

I spoke yesterday about the three key findings of our trust work at the launch of this report, the triennial OECD Regulatory Policy Outlook. (Not sure when the recording will be online, but it was a fun panel and an interesting launch).

I genuinely think it a good document which covers innovative thinking well. I thought of some of you when reading it. Roger Miles on the need for improvement on 'Do we know whether rules actually work in real life as intended?' and are they invented with a clear purpose in mind and with a deep understanding of What Actually Happens - err.....

As someone new to the area the phenomenon of 'set and forget' and that regulators don’t even know if governance is working or not, was a bit of a shocker for me! And to be honest in terms of trustworthy governance and building trust in governance, this is table stakes.

I would suggest three main areas for more thinking:

1. More evidence and guidance needed on the public interest purpose and quality of consultations and their impact, not just the fact of them occurring.

2. Stimulate encourage regulators to provide better information and clearer communication for citizens. As we said in the report, regulators are a trusted source of info - 'help us help ourselves' says citizens in the excellent work on trust from Michelle Patel from the Food Standards Agency

3. More needed about a more holistic approach to governance design, including involvement of citizens. Brought up our ideas on 'Building Trusted Environments for collaboration' which everyone thinks important but is hard.

Congratulations Nick Malyshev, Christiane Arndt and colleagues for a great job. Hope to hear more about its impact and further work in the coming months,