Growth duty for non-economic regulators


A statutory “growth duty” for “non-economic regulators” (including the HSE) came into force in March 2017. Section 108 of the Deregulation Act 2015 requires these regulators to “have regard to the desirability of promoting economic growth” when exercising their regulatory function and to ensure that regulatory action is “taken only when needed” and is “proportionate”. The new “growth duty” only applies to regulatory powers exercised by the Westminster government. It does not apply to devolved matters in Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland. It applies to all the regulatory functions exercised by the HSE. 


The duty is part of the Tories’ deregulatory agenda. The accompanying guidance explains how it formed part of the overall aim to “cut £10 billion of regulatory burdens over the lifetime of this parliament”. 


The guidance states that “economic growth is an outcome that all regulators should be working towards”, and that the new duty should assist regulators in understanding their priorities “before allocating resources, setting enforcement policies, and making sanctioning decisions”, and should “encourage regulators to develop more mature and productive relationships with those sectors and businesses that they regulate, driving up the accountability of regulators to the business community”. 


In a submission to a recent parliamentary Regulatory Reform Committee inquiry into the government’s deregulation agenda, Professors Steve Tombs, David Whyte, David Walters and Phil James called for deregulatory initiatives including the growth duty to be scrapped. Their submission can be found on the Institute for Employment Rights (IER) website at: http://www.ier.org.uk/sites/ier.org.uk/files/Regulatory%20Reform%20Committee%20Submission%202018.pdf.