New accountabilities in utilities: fifty years of legal accountability in the gas industry

Privatisation was to have released the nationalised industries from the ‘dead hand of government’. Regulation with a ‘light hand’ was imposed to curb abuse of monopoly power. But as the industries have matured in the private sector we have seen regulation extended to cover a wider area, both in theory and in practice. This paper examines the change in responsibilities and the way they are divided between industry, regulator and government, tracing the legal accountability of the UK gas industry through nationalisation, privatisation and more recent regulation reform as an example. It concludes by questioning the appropriateness of the ‘vertical separation’, instituted by the privatisation and competition legislation, of responsibilities for the public interest and for organisational operations.