Looking beyond the rules: What makes regulation effective?
September 2026
The future of regulation is better design, not more complexity
Effective regulation is not about creating more rules, but designing regulation that is easier to understand, navigate and apply. As governments, regulators and businesses increasingly focus on supporting growth and innovation, I’ve come to see better collaboration, clearer guidance, digital transformation and user-centred design as essential to achieving better regulatory outcomes.
In this blog, I explore why the conversation around regulation is changing, and how government, regulators and industry are increasingly focusing on better regulatory design to support economic growth, innovation, public protection and more effective regulatory outcomes.
For years, discussions about regulation and economic growth have often been framed as competing priorities. The debate has typically centred on whether regulation creates unnecessary barriers to innovation or whether more regulation is needed to protect people, markets and the environment.
Increasingly, however, I think that conversation is changing.
Recent discussions across government, regulators and industry, including TSO’s Regulating for Growth roundtables, the UK Government’s Regulation Action Plan, and a recent BBC Radio 4 podcast on regulatory reform, all point towards a common conclusion. The question is no longer whether regulation is necessary, but how regulation can be designed to achieve better outcomes while remaining proportionate, accessible and supportive of growth.
Rather than reducing regulation, I believe the opportunity lies in improving how regulation is created, communicated and used.
Across every sector, we see organisations operating within an increasingly complex regulatory landscape.
The BBC discussion highlighted familiar concerns from businesses, including lengthy approval processes, overlapping responsibilities between regulators, inconsistent guidance and the impact these can have on investment and innovation.
Many of these challenges were echoed during our Regulating for Growth roundtable.
Regulators themselves recognised that maintaining public confidence while supporting innovation requires regulatory systems that are easier to navigate, more coordinated and capable of adapting to changing technologies and market expectations.
To me, the challenge is no longer simply formulating policy, it is ensuring regulation works effectively in practice.
Although each discussion approached regulation from a different perspective, I noticed several common themes continue to emerge.
Government is prioritising regulatory reform to support economic growth while maintaining public protection.
Regulators are recognising the importance of collaboration, user-centred guidance and modernising how regulatory information is delivered.
Businesses are asking for greater clarity, consistency and proportionate approaches that reduce unnecessary complexity without weakening standards.
Together, these conversations suggest to me that regulation is entering a new phase, one focused less on increasing or reducing regulation, and more on improving its effectiveness.
Modern regulation rarely sits within a single organisation.
Many businesses now engage with multiple regulators, each with different responsibilities, guidance and processes. During our Regulating for Growth roundtable, participants discussed the growing importance of regulators sharing insight, aligning approaches and working together to improve outcomes.
The BBC podcast reflected similar concerns, highlighting the complexity organisations experience when navigating multiple regulatory bodies and approval processes.
I believe effective regulation increasingly depends on effective collaboration.
One of the strongest themes I’ve seen emerging across both discussions is that compliance becomes significantly harder when people cannot easily understand what regulation requires.
Small businesses interviewed for the BBC podcast described being willing to comply but struggling to identify which regulations applied to them and how new legislation should be interpreted.
This reinforces a challenge that regulators themselves recognise.
In my view, publishing regulation effectively is critical.
People need information that is:
I think improving guidance, accessibility and usability is becoming just as important as producing regulation itself.
Regulation is increasingly expected to operate within a digital environment.
The BBC discussion explored examples ranging from AI to autonomous technologies, highlighting how regulatory frameworks need to evolve alongside innovation rather than unintentionally slowing it.
The Government’s Regulation Action Plan reaches similar conclusions, placing greater emphasis on digital transformation, reducing unnecessary complexity and improving the usability of regulatory information.
As regulation becomes increasingly digital, I see information itself becoming strategic infrastructure. That information needs to be unlocked from fixed digital formats so that it can be found, used and understood, particularly by systems that integrate all rules and regulations relevant to individual businesses.
Businesses consistently identify uncertainty as one of the biggest barriers to investment.
Lengthy approval processes, inconsistent decision-making and unclear regulatory expectations can delay projects and reduce confidence.
I think the discussion is therefore shifting beyond deregulation towards creating regulatory environments that provide certainty while remaining proportionate and responsive to innovation.
For regulators, this means balancing public protection with enabling economic growth.
Perhaps the biggest shift I’ve noticed is recognising that regulation is ultimately experienced by people.
Whether those users are businesses, professionals or members of the public, or artificial intelligence on their behalf, I believe regulation only achieves its purpose if it can be understood and applied confidently.
This was a recurring theme throughout our roundtable, where participants discussed the importance of publishing regulation consistently, improving guidance and designing regulatory services around user needs rather than organisational structures.
The result, I believe, is better compliance, greater trust and improved outcomes for everyone involved.
Key takeaways
September 2026
September 2026
September 2026