Regulators, government, and parliament need to work together to make sure there is ‘joined-up’ digital regulation, a new House of Lords report says.

According to the House of Lords Communications and Digital Committee, systems are not rigorous or accountable enough to address regulatory gaps and overlaps.

The Committee said that better processes as well as regulators, industry, and experts working more closely together are needed to deal with emerging challenges such as artificial intelligence advances.

While the Committee felt that a new Digital Regulation Co-operation Forum (DRCF) is “a small step,” it said there was a lack of overarching coordination and oversight of regulatory objectives. It is also concerned that it lacks robust systems to coordinate objectives and to sort out potential conflicts between different regulators as the workload expands.

“Persistent challenges remain that the regulatory system is insufficiently equipped to confront,” said Lord Gilbert, chair of the committee. “We called for more joined-up regulation and more resources as far back as 2019 and although the DRCF is a step in the right direction it doesn’t meet the challenges we face.

“We are concerned that not all regulators with digital interests and expertise have a seat at the table.

“Sharing information between regulators, advisory bodies, government, industry and experts needs to be enhanced to avoid duplication and ensure that the greatest range of perspectives feed into regulation.”

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