Seminar with the OECD on regulation and Covid-19 (26th May)

We represented RegWatchEurope, the best-practice sharing group of which the RPC is a core member, detailing the experiences of regulatory scrutiny in the last two months across Europe. The session was held online via videoconference at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

Discussions included the difficulty of engaging key stakeholders, such as business representatives, at this time, and the different ways countries were preparing to undertake analysis of the actual effects of regulation that may not have been fully scrutinised when implemented as emergency measures.

Participants suggested that Covid-19’s effects will be most pronounced not in the “fast-tracking” of regulation but in potentially undermining better regulation processes in the near-future. There will need to be concerted efforts to ensure that rules are followed when regulatory processes return to normal.

The discussions will be used to inform a paper that the OECD is preparing on governments’ use of regulatory management tools in response to Covid-19.