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‘An Experimental Offensive against the Mishandling of Risk in Society’: Reflecting on the Pioneering Work of the Risk and Regulation Advisory Council in the UK

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Adam Burgess  and
Donald Macrae
Adam Burgess
Affiliation:
Social Risk Research, University of Kent
Donald Macrae
Affiliation:
UNECE Group of Experts on Risk Management in Regulatory Systems, Dutch Risk and Responsibility Programme
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Abstract

This article looks back at the history and legacy of the Risk and Regulation Advisory Council in the UK. The Council was the first government body to explicitly challenge a culture of overreaction to ‘public risk’, one of a number of ways in which it was a unique and interesting experiment in addressing the political dimension of contemporary regulation. Whilst the RRAC was ultimately unsuccessful in bringing about a change in how risk is managed by government it has, at least, left a useful intellectual legacy and, more practically, its work is effectively being taken forward by the Risk and Responsibility programme of the Dutch government.

Type
Research Article
Information
European Journal of Risk Regulation , Volume 3 , Issue 3 , September 2012 , pp. 343 - 351
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

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References

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2 Donald Macrae was the council member and Adam Burgess the academic consultant, who became colleagues through discussions on the reports Burgess wrote. Burgess composed the original mapping document on ‘public risk’ and further reports on ‘regulatory storms’ and public inquiries.

3 Website of the International Regulatory Reform Conference 2011: Welcome. Available on the Internet at: <http://www.bertelsmann-stiftung.de/cps/rde/xchg/bst_engl/hs.xsl/prj_53890.ht> (last accessed on 16 July 2012).

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7 See Burgess, Adam, “Public Inquiries in the (Risk) Regulatory State”, 6 British Politics (2011), pp. 3. et sqq CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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18 A fourth topic – of the broader, obesity or climate change type – was floated but never agreed upon.

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23 E.g. Tree fall legislation criticised, Evening Herald (Plymouth), June 27, 2008; Tree Plan Typical of Intrusive Behaviour, The Journal (Newcastle, UK), June 26, 2008; Garden trees ‘need official safety checks’, The Evening Standard (London), June 20, 2008; Fears over tree plans, Somerset Guardian, August 7, 2008. All newspaper citations generated through Lexis Nexis database.

24 RRAC, Risk With Responsibility, supra note 1, p. 29.

25 For an outline of established approaches to risk see, for example, Taylor-Gooby, Peter and Zinn, Jens, Risk in Social Science (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006)Google Scholar.

26 The term was coined by one of the authors as a hook in the initial proposal to Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

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29 See Burgess, Adam, “Nudging’ Healthy Lifestyles: The UK Experiments with the Behavioural Alternative to Regulation and the Market”, 1(3) European Journal of Risk Regulation, (2012), pp. 3. et sqq CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

30 Generated on the Lexis Nexis newspaper database and searched on 15 March 2012.

31 Rosemary Bennett, “Risk watchdog is introduced to protect our spirit of adventure”, The Times, 16 January 2008

32 By comparison even the Better Regulation Commission was mentioned in 90 articles overall.

33 Matthew Parris, “Health and safety problems? Ring my new hotline!”, The Times, 31 January 2008, p. 19.

34 Gordon Brown, “I need your help to beat the terrorists”, The Sun 14 November 2007, p.8

35 Cited in Burgess, “Nudging Healthy Lifestyles”, supra note 29, p. 8.

36 Gordon Brown, “Banish the bags: Why Sarah and I know this is right”, the Daily Mail 29 February 2008, p. 5.

37 Articles can be found on the Internet at: <http://bis.ecgroup.net/Publications/AboutUs/RiskandRegulationAdvisoryCouncil.aspx> (last accessed on 16 July 2012).