The Government has published a new Plan for Digital Regulation setting out how the Government perceives digital regulation.
The new plan folows from the ‘Ten Tech Priorities’ published in March 2021. The Plan for Digital Regulation aims to strike a balance between enabling innovation in digital tech while ensuring protections for society and fundamental rights.
The Plan for Digital Regulation defines digital regulation as ‘the range of regulatory tools that government, regulators, businesses, and other bodies use to manage the impact that digital technologies and activities can have on individuals, companies, the economy and society.’
The plan contains key principles which the Government believes policymakers should follow when crafting digital regulation:
- Principle 1 – Actively promote innovation: removing unnecessary regulations and burdens while considering whether non-regulatory measures are more appropriate and, if not, ensuring that regulation is outcomes focused, backed by robust evidence and considering the effects on innovation.
- Principle 2 – Achieve forward looking and coherent outcomes: acknowledging the interconnectedness of regulatory regimes and ensuring new regulation minimises contradictions, undue burdens or overlaps with existing frameworks.
- Principle 3 – Exploit opportunities and address challenges in the international arena: building in international considerations from the start to consider existing global obligations and how digital technical standards can support domestic rulemaking.