Devolution and the Regulatory State: The Case of Broadband and Telecommunications

Abstract

The United Kingdom has simultaneously created a highly sophisticated regulatory state and devolved significant powers to legislatures in three of its four nations, it has also transferred significant powers to institutions of the European Union. This paper briefly examines how the present systems operate for telecommunications in general and broadband in particular, then examines how they might be improved by bringing the devolved administrations of Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales into the regulatory state. The interactions between EU and UK “federal governments”, plus an independent regulator (and ancillary bodies) and local authorities are complex, with overlaps and blindspots. These require to be brought within a single coherent framework that identifies targets, responsibilities and oversight mechanisms.The cases of the telecommunications regulation and broadband plans in the Kingdoms of Belgium and Spain, both member states of the EU and having complex federal systems with considerable autonomy to regions, are examined. The examples of three, larger federal countries, the Commonwealth of Australia, Canada and the United States of America, are analysed in terms of integrative mechanisms between the different levels of government. The cooperation mechanisms of the British overseas territories of the Eastern Caribbean, where institutions are shared outside a formal federation are considered. The analyses identify lessons in terms of accountability, coordination, federalism, subsidiarity and efficiency, noting the wide range of issues associated with broadband, including competition law, sector regulation, promotion of adoption by specific social groups (e.g., urban poor, elderly and disabled).Options to improve the arrangements presently used in the UK are set out with their advantages and disadvantages. These are analysed in terms of the present political and administrative systems, the need to reform the regulatory state, the need to integrate it with the devolved legislatures and administrations, given the states goal of achieving world class broadband, in order to deliver economic growth, social objectives and support the adoption of e-government, which will enable savings in government expenditure.