Adam Price says the new Welsh language LCO should extend only as far as those businesses already subject to sector-specific regulation.
A good idea. I wish I'd proposed it.
Monday, March 17, 2008
Regulation redux
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5 comments:
Fair do's i think he has got it spot on, it has my qualified support.
"businesses subject to sector specific regulation"
Pubs & off licenses?
sub-post offices?
credit unions?
private hire taxis?
Good questions. I wouldn't classify pubs and off-licenses as being subject to sector-specific regulation. They are retailers licensed to sell products whose consumption is restricted. Same-ish for cabbies.
Post offices might fall within scope. Not sure about Credit Unions.
credit unions are regulated by the FSA. Suppose you expect banks to be covered?
Postcom regulates postal services. If it is not a sector specific regulator, what is it?
What about public transport operators? If taxi firms are to be left out, what about bus operators or TOC's?
Price clearly intends coverage to include trades unions. In what sense are these institutions subject to sector specific regulation? What also of voluntary bodies like tenant & resident organisations and the like?
Your / Price's idea is probably the best compromise available, but it is not the quick slice through the gordian knot your post suggests ...
My approach was based on competition, or the lack of it. Where there is a genuine market for a good or service, I don't propose that regulation should be introduced. Pubs, off-licenses and cabs exist in a fully competitive market, but we restrict the sale of the former to minors and insist that the latter be vetted and for those reasons alone a licensing system is operated.
Post offices are different, hence my feeling that they would fall within scope. Credit Unions are somewhere between, hence my uncertainty.
But a good set of objections nonetheless.
Regards.
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