Regulators ‘need to prove’ effectiveness

The four main consumer regulators cannot prove if they are effectively responding to consumer concerns or offering enough protection for those who need it, the National Audit Office has warned.

It said that although the organisations – Ofwat, Ofgem, Of co ma nd the Financial Conduct Authority–understand the “significant difficulties” facing consumers across utilities, communica-- ti on sand financial services markets, government, Parliament and other stakeholders have expressed concerns about whether these sectors are working as well as they can for consumers raising questions about their effectiveness.

It said that the organisations need to do more to show the concrete results they are aiming to achieve for consumers.

There is no common set of standards for how or what regulators report on consumer outcomes, nor do they share a way to measure issues that cut across multiple sectors, such as affordability and debt.

The NAO report said: “Regulators have also not been specific enough in defining the overall outcomes they want to achieve for consumers. For instance, they have high- level aims such as high quality, good value services, but do not set sector-wide targets or other success measures to define what these mean in practical terms, such as what level and distribution of prices or service reliability they would consider good or bad.”