On 8 October 2024, acting on a manifesto commitment, the UK's Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, announced the launch of a new Regulatory Innovation Office (RIO) to speed up public access to new technologies. It is not entirely clear what the status of the RIO will be. The Labour manifesto said it would bring together existing functions across government but it is also subsuming the functions of independent bodies including the Regulatory Horizons Council.
The RIO's mission statement so far as it goes, is somewhat vague. The objectives appear sound – an enabler of innovation, supporting the deployment of new technologies at pace and at scale, driving greater collaboration between regulators and government departments to ensure a joined-up and comprehensive approach to new innovations, and building regulator capacity – all to enhance the UK's competitiveness and drive economic growth.
Setting up yet another regulatory body seems arguably counter intuitive if the objective is cutting red tape. We already have a variety of regulators working in the digital space, both separately and together under the banner of the Digital Regulation Cooperation Forum (DRCF) - Ofcom, the ICO, the CMA and the FCA are members although the MHRA is not. The DRCF was set up to ensure a greater level of co-operation on digital regulation, focusing on online platforms, but the RIO's scope is more ambitious, even if it does overlap with existing regulatory functions. Areas of sector focus are engineering biology, space, AI and digital in healthcare, and connected and autonomous technology. The government says that these areas do not fit neatly into existing regulatory frameworks which can result in delays getting new technologies into circulation.
The key challenge the RIO faces is how to achieve its aims in an effective and agile manner, which speeds up the regulatory pathway rather than presents another road bump to co-ordinated and proportionate regulation. We don't know whether it will have powers to change or influence the approaches of the existing regulators, most of whom are under statutory obligations in relation to the areas or sectors under their remit, including a requirement to consult on any new or emerging areas of regulation.
Another issue is levels of funding for the new organisation which the upcoming budget may clarify. Regulators including those in the DRCF have long been concerned about funding given their enhanced responsibilities under recent and incoming regulation and may be unhappy if their own funding suffers as a result of significant resources being allocated to the RIO.
It will also be interesting to see how the RIO seeks to balance reducing regulatory red tape with the need to provide appropriate levels of protection to consumers and businesses in relation to new, potentially highly complex technologies, and whether it will have the expertise at its disposal to make fully informed and relevant contributions to the work of the existing sector specialist regulators.
Perhaps the success of the RIO will depend, in part, on its Chair. The government seeks “an ambitious, visionary leader” to head up the RIO. Any volunteers?
