Regulatory Structure | 85
national level can be seen in the proliferation of small regulators – 31 regulators within the review’s remit have fewer than 100 staff, and twelve have fewer than 20. Regulators of that size are unlikely to be able to allocate resources efficiently, and lack political and institutional prominence. Within themselves, they cannot carry out broad risk assessments, or easily understand the cumulative burden of the regulations they are imposing. More broadly, it is difficult for Government to allocate resources to areas of importance if funding for regulation is balkanised among so many different bodies. 4.27: Further, the existence of a large number of national regulators, with their different cultures, approaches and focus on specific market segments or business activities, significantly inhibits the prospect of introducing a collectively agreed approach to risk assessment of inspection programmes and form filling requirements. A more consolidated regulatory landscape would allow not only the introduction of a more uniform approach to risk, but also simplify the process of ensuring that the national regulations adopt and mainstream Hampton principles.” Hampton proposed a wholesale restructuring of regulation: “thirty one national regulatory bodies should be consolidated into seven, with individual regulators covering the entire scope of environment, health and safety, food standards, consumer and trading standards, animal health, agricultural inspections, and rural and countryside issues”.
Implementation of Hampton In November 2006 the government published Implementing Hampton. This reported that “there is now agreement that 19 national regulators will be consolidated into” [six existing agencies]. In practice just eight separate organisations had ceased to exist. It listed “agreed mergers”, one of which (the Gangmasters Licensing Authority into