Interaction of Citizens with Regulatory Enforcement and Inspection Bodies: Status and Key Trends

Abstract

The objective of the paper is to evaluate the status and trends of citizen interactions with regulatory enforcement and inspection bodies in the framework of inspection reform.The key method used was a representative sociological survey conducted in 35 Russian regions in March 2020. The survey allowed for collecting citizen evaluations on personal experience related to facing 10 major risks to public values (in the areas of personal safety from crime, food and non-food product safety, fire and technical safety of buildings and constructions, environmental safety, risks related to medical services and drugs, transport safety, risks related to financial services and misuse of personal data).The results demonstrate that some 49.5 percent of Russian citizens have faced the need to protect themselves from the above risks for the past 2 years. Out of them, 44.9 percent of respondents applied for protection to regulatory enforcement and inspection authorities. Only 44.2 percent of respondents that had applied to regulatory enforcement and inspection authorities for protection of public values fully attained their objectives (i.e. managed to prevent the threat or have violations eliminated and the damage reimbursed).Comparing these results to those obtained from the previous surveys demonstrates that implementation of the inspection reform has not yet made any significant effect on improving the quality of interaction between citizen and regulatory enforcement and inspection authorities. To improve the quality of such interactions special measures should be undertaken for improving the use of feedback mechanisms for planning inspection activities. Responses to citizen applications should be controlled not only in terms of timeliness but also in terms of substance. Timely review and reaction to citizen applications as well as more involvement in damage reimbursement processes on the part of regulatory enforcement and inspection authorities are also recommended. Broader use of digital technologies for interactions between citizen and regulatory enforcement and inspection authorities could also help improve the quality of these interactions and contribute to increasing the public trust to these authorities.