Missing Postwatch already?

Last week, the House of Lords published a Select Committee report on the UK economic regulators including Postcomm. In Chapter 5 of the report, there is a section entitled “How are consumer interests protected in the regulatory state?”

This looks at models of consumer representation and comparisons are made between the integrated model of the Ofcom Consumer Panel and the Financial Services Consumer Panel – where the consumer body sits in the regulator – and the alternative standalone model of Postwatch and Energywatch – where the consumer body sits outside the regulator.

The report concludes that:

– “Different consumer representation models operate in the regulatory state and all the regulators were vociferous in justifying their particular model. However, we believe that stand alone consumer representation bodies are more transparent and more effective.”

– “The new landscape for consumer representation has been created by the Consumers, Estate Agents and Redress Act 2007 [Consumer Voice]. We are sceptical that the proposed new arrangements will lead to improvements in consumer representation but we recognise that it is too early to judge whether our scepticism is justified. The new arrangements will need careful monitoring and this is a role that might be taken up by a sessional Committee on regulators.”

This is a reference to the fact that the CEAR Act will combine both Postwatch and Energywatch with the National Consumer Council so that, from October 2008, there will not be a sector-specific consumer body for postal services.