States broadens competition review
THE States is asking islanders about value for money and service standards in a range of utility services, the construction sector and off-island travel as part of a review of competition law and regulation.
The Economic Development Committee has consulted a range of stakeholders and is now asking the public for its views.
‘Government needs to ensure that the competition and regulatory framework is fit for purpose and meets the requirements of States strategic priorities, enables business growth and is proportionate to the size of our jurisdiction – in short, we need to “right size” our regulatory framework,’ said president Neil Inder, who said that such a review was ‘long overdue’.
The committee has commissioned consultants Frontier Economics to carry out a review into regulatory frameworks in comparable jurisdictions, and tasked Island Global Research to investigate consumers’ views to competition in a range of different sectors, including telecoms, water, electricity, gas and oil, postal services, residential construction and off-island travel. However the scope of the review does not extend to the regulation of other regulated sectors, such as financial services.
Themes emerging from the consultation so far included respondents asking that any legal framework should be proportionate to the size of the jurisdiction and should be amended so that the regulator is able to take account of States policy objectives or to conduct regulatory impact assessments. Some participants in the consultation said they were keen to clarify the scope and accountability of the regulator and noted that the Guernsey Competition & Regulatory Authority has limited resources compared to other regulators.
They also suggested that greater use could be made of market reviews.
Other regulators, such as the Jersey Competition Regulatory Authority and the Competition and Markets Authority in the UK, are able to use alternative regulatory approaches such as issuing guidance or using mediation to resolve disputes, thereby reducing the risk of lengthy and costly litigation.
Once Economic Development has received the relevant research reports it is expected to bring a policy letter before the States. The timeframe for this has not been clarified.
The committee is taking a policy letter to the States next week to suspend the island’s competition law to push through Sure’s takeover of Airtel-Vodafone, which had already been approved in Jersey.
n The consumer survey is available at https://survey.islandglobalresearch.com/s3/2024ConsumerChoice
