In many ways, the petrol pump says it all. Very few people ever question the accuracy of the petrol pump gauge when they fill up. It is not an issue, because the accuracy of those gauges is regularly tested by local authority trading standards officers.
Yet, few motorists realise that.
That is just one of a number of paradoxes in the world of regulatory services. Another is the way in which regulation is treated by the media and national politicians.
On the one hand, high-profile incidents involving, for example, a salmonella outbreak, are invariably followed by calls for more regulation. And on the other hand, the impression given by much of the media and by drives to ‘cull red tape', is that regulation is a negative, stultifying, bureaucratic and burdensome activity.
At the same time, the importance of councils' regulatory responsibilities looks set to increase. This was one of the conclusions in All our futures, a report on local governance in 2015, produced by the Tavistock Institute for the-then Office of the Deputy Prime Minister.
It went on to argue that securing local ownership of the case for regulation must be a key function of local political leadership, and that consultation and debate on regulatory issues should become as important as the enforcement of those regulations.
These are the complex issues facing those responsible for councils' regulatory services functions. The question of what competences councils need in order to respond was one of the issues addressed in a project the Tavistock Institute has carried out with the Local Authorities Co-ordinators of Regulatory Services (LACORS).
The project, Regulation for excellence, concluded that the characteristics of the best regulatory services functions were precisely those which were necessary to respond to this changing context.
The core competence is an understanding of risk and the use of the full array of tactics available to a council – from education through to prosecution – in an intelligent and sensitive way. Regulatory services have a high internal profile in these councils, councillors are engaged in them, and they promote and benefit from inter and intra-authority collaboration. LACORS is gearing up to support councils which want to develop those characteristics among its regulatory services teams. But is that enough? Is now an appropriate time for LACORS and the sector to ask more searching questions about the future of local regulation? Given the emphasis placed on regulation in recent speeches by both the prime minister, Tony Blair, and chancellor, Gordon Brown, we think it is. The object must be businesses and individuals who respect their customers and neighbours. It is businesses which benefit most from the level playing field which regulation seeks to maintain.
Brand and reputation are crucial to most businesses, and they hinge in part on being seen to provide high-quality, legitimate and, where appropriate, safe services or products.
So, should the primary objective for regulatory services be to foster a spirit which means that when problems emerge, businesses act themselves, and those problems are averted?
Is it feasible to imagine re-conceptualising local regulatory services so that their focus is explicitly on supporting the improvement of local businesses and services, the vitality of local economies, and the health and cohesion of local communities, as well as tackling infringements of regulations?
What would this mean for the shape of these services, and what would the wider implications be?
Such an approach could, for example, involve creating a new relationship between regulatory services and the business community, building on the approaches already being pursued by the best council regulatory services functions.
In short, if red tape – regulation to prevent – is seen as being a cost, what might green tape – regulation to prevent and improve – look like?
These are important issues on which LACORS will be leading a debate over the next few months.
Derek Allen is executive director of LACORS, and Phil Swann is director of the Tavistock Institute.