The House of Lords Industry and Regulators Committee published a 76 page report Thursday detailing “widespread concerns about the accountability of regulators” and suggesting the formation of a new independent statutory Office for Regulatory Performance.

The report, titled “Who watches the watchdogs?,” discusses the implications that Brexit has had on independent regulators. The report claims that post-Brexit has resulted in an expansion of responsibilities for regulators in the UK.  As regulators are independent from the government, this additional demand has impacted resources and accountability of the regulators.

The report proposes strategic guidance for independent regulators. Member of Parliament (MP) John Penrose is quoted in the report, saying that a strategic direction is “at least a way of trying to formalize government intervention and make it less frequent, more black and white and more transparent.” The report claims that one of the greatest challenges in post-Brexit regulation is to strike a balance between allowing regulators to maintain independence while ensuring accountability is met.

The report elaborates that regulators “exercise substantial powers on behalf of Parliament and the public, but are not subject to the same forms of accountability as ministers.” The report explores the idea of allowing bodies, including the National Audit Office and National Infrastructure Commission, to help examine regulator’s role. However, the report concludes that this runs the risk of stretching “their resources” and complicating “the clarity of their roles.”

The report concludes that the best way to “plug the gap in regulatory accountability” is a new independent statutory body whose role is to systematically support Parliament in holding regulators accountable. This would be an “Office for Regulatory Performance.”