Yet many of you often tell us about regulations that are over-complicated, unclear, nonsensical, unnecessarily long, or that conflict with other regulation. In short, we hear that there is too much regulatory "gobbledygook".
Regulation does not become gobbledygook just because it is difficult to understand or could be better written. Sometimes complex or lengthy provisions may be needed, for example where criminal offences are involved, and it is vital that the provisions are precise and do not leave loopholes. Sometimes "good enough" will do.
What is understandable to one person may not be to another. For example, "accruals accounting" might be convenient shorthand in regulation applying to the accounting profession but the term might need to be explained to people with no accountancy training. According to one survey on literacy rates in the UK, 1 in 6 of the adult population cannot read a bus or train timetable, so it is unrealistic to think that all regulation could be understood by the whole population without some help, guidance or advice.
But gobbledygook can be a legitimate source of concern to all of us.
It can have an adverse impact on business, for example wasting the time of those trying to understand it and increasing the need for professional advice, with resultant cost. Businesses may take decisions they would not have taken if the regulation was clear, possibly erring on the side of caution, or they may inadvertently be in breach of ambiguous regulation, with resulting risks of interventions by regulators.
Unclear regulatory drafting can also impact us as individuals and our society.
In the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, the Ministry of Truth created its own form of language by removing words from the vocabulary (Newspeak) or confusing their meaning (Doublethink) to make it easier to manipulate and control the population. We do not suppose that the government or regulators in the UK deliberately set out to promote unclear regulation, but unless we can understand the rules that apply to us reasonably easily, we lose a degree of control over our own destinies.
We are planning a series of articles looking at examples of regulatory gobbledygook that we think stand out – our Gobbledygook Champions. At the end of the series, we will consider what lessons might be learned from these examples, including whether the UK’s regulatory regime needs to be improved to keep poor regulatory drafting within reasonable bounds.
We would welcome your suggestions for these articles. If you or your clients have suffered from regulatory gobbledygook, please let us know using this form. Your examples could become Gobbledygook Champions too.
If this is an issue that affects you and your work, look out for our first Gobbledygook Champion article next month and let us have your nominations in the link below.
