Regulation is never off the political or media agenda. Every time something goes wrong there are calls for new regulation, better regulation, more regulation and tougher regulation. At the same time, in a sort of parallel universe, there are regular reports  that regulation has gone too far.

Individual decisions on regulation are frequently taken in isolation of either of these trends , and many regulatory or deregulatory initiatives fail, either because they are knee jerk reactions or because they are not properly thought through or implemented.

In this report, author Mark Boleat sets out some guiding principles for regulation covering in particular effective policy making, enforcement, combating “backdoor regulation”, funding and evaluation.