Tony Prosser

This book aims to provide a comprehensive account of the history and development of the regulation, law and policy of the European Community relating to the media and audiovisual fields. It describes the various support measures developed for the media industries in order to provide a complete picture and a context for the regulatory actions outlined.

Making sense of the worst fire in the UK since 1945 can seem like an impossible task given the confusion observed in the media and in the courts since the fire. Tony Prosser and Mark Taylor together have nearly 80 years of experience in the fire and rescue service and bring an insiders' perspective to the challenges faced by firefighters on the night, and the reasons why such an event was allowed to occur. They consider how a fire safety regime which was one of the most sophisticated in the world failed to prevent 72 residents in a modern building from dying. They consider how legislation has changed, why firefighters are now marginalised by Government despite having reduced fire deaths in the home by nearly 50% in 15 years.

This title was first published in 2000: The book will be a set of essays addressing various aspects of regulation. It will concentrate on regulation as a precondition of successfully operating markets - by opening up markets and establishing conditions of trust. It will cover a broad range of varied forms of regulation. The book will respond to recent developments, for example, the shift from deregulation to better regulation will be explored. Most chapters will be written jointly by an academic and a legal practitioner (from the commercial solicitors firm of Shepherd and Wedderburn), thus ensuring an integration of theoretical analysis with practical problems.

A practical book providing current and potential Incident Commanders with a broad understanding of what is expected of them, and the processes and systems that the British Fire and Rescue Service uses, to safely command an incident. Fire and Rescue Incident Command provides a comprehensive guide to incident ground operations, from small house fires and road traffic accidents, to widespread wildfires, high-rise operations and major transport disasters. It explores: * The tactics and strategies available at an incident * The roles and responsibilities of the Incident Commander and those under his/her command * The legal framework within which fire ground activities must operate * Good communications practice and protocols * The tactics needed to ensure the safety of the public, property and the firefighters on the front line The overall aim of this book is to guide you through some of the key issues that face Incident Commanders in the modern fire and rescue service, to identify good practice, and to present real-life examples of a wide range of incidents and the lessons that can be learned.

This title was first published in 2000: The book will be a set of essays addressing various aspects of regulation. It will concentrate on regulation as a precondition of successfully operating markets - by opening up markets and establishing conditions of trust. It will cover a broad range of varied forms of regulation. The book will respond to recent developments, for example, the shift from deregulation to better regulation will be explored. Most chapters will be written jointly by an academic and a legal practitioner (from the commercial solicitors firm of Shepherd and Wedderburn), thus ensuring an integration of theoretical analysis with practical problems.

There has been little analysis of the constitutional framework for management of the UK economy, either in constitutional law or regulatory studies. This is in contrast to many other countries where the concept of an 'economic constitution' is well established, as it is in the law of the European Union. Given the extensive role of the state in attempting to resolve recent financial crises in the UK and elsewhere in Europe, it is particularly important to develop such an analysis. This book sets out different meanings of an economic constitution, and applies them to key areas of economic management, including taxation and public borrowing, the management of public spending, (including the Spending Review), monetary policy, financial services regulation, industrial policy (including state shareholdings) and government contracting. It analyses the key institutions involved such as the Treasury and the Bank of England, also including a number of less well-known bodies such as the Office for Budget Responsibility. There is also coverage of the international context in which these institutions operate especially the European Union and the World Trade Organisation. It thus provides an account of the public law applying to economic management in the UK. This book also adopts a critical approach, assessing the degree to which there is coherence in the arrangements for economic management, the degree to which economic policy-making is constrained by constitutional norms, and the degree to which economic management is subject to deliberation and accountability through Parliament, the courts and other institutions.

Tony Prosser examines a range of different British regulatory bodies, including the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, the Food Standards Agency, the Environment Agency, the Health and Safety Executive, the regulators for health and social care, and the utility regulators covering communications, energy, rail, and water. He emphasizes that no regulator works in isolation but is part of a complex network of different institutions, including central government departments and European institutions. Effective regulatory accountability requires that the relations between the different bodies are clear and transparent, and the book assesses the extent to which this is achieved in practice. Prosser also highlights the range of tasks which regulators perform. Many regulators are responsible for economic regulation aimed at increasing efficiency and promoting consumer choice, but they also have other roles, notably protecting human rights, promoting social solidarity and social inclusion, and providing a forum for deliberation and learning through listening to different interests. The different legal duties of regulators, and their operation in practice, are examined in relation to each of these roles, with an emphasis on how regulators ought to decide and how they can be held accountable for their decisions. Finally, the book looks at how regulators themselves are regulated as part of the 'better regulation' initiative, it examines attempts to reduce regulatory burdens and to improve regulatory procedures, for example through the use of regulatory impact analysis. It also features comparative analysis of experience from France and the USA.

To what extent should public services (for example public utilities such as telecommunications, energy, public transport and postal services) be subject to ordinary competition law? This question has assumed great importance in the context of the activities of European Union. On the one hand, it is argued (particularly in France) that competition law is a threat to the values of public services that underlie their distinctive objectives. On the other, the 'Anglo-Saxon' argument is that protecting public services from competition gives them an unfairly protected position and can mask their inefficiencies. This book examines the philosophical, political, economic, and social principles involved. Prosser contrasts the mainly economic and utilitarian justifications for the use of competition law with rights- and citizenship-based arguments for the special treatment of public services, and examines the varied conceptions of the differing traditions in the UK, France, and Italy. Prosser then considers the developing European law in this area. He examines decisions of the European Court of Justice, considers the development of the concept of 'services of general interest' by the Commission, and reviews the liberalization process in telecommunications, energy, and postal services. He also provides a detailed case-study of public service broadcasting. The book concludes by drawing general principles from the debates about the extent to which public services merit distinctive treatment and the extent to which competition law must be amended or limited to respect their distinctive roles.

This is the first book to use a comparative approach to examine the effects of different constitutional and legal traditions on privatization. Cosmo Graham and Tony Prosser focus on privatization in the UK and France. They suggest that the British Government was remarkably free from constitutional limitation, whereas in France the written constitution imposed important restrictions on the scope of privatization and on the arrangements of the pricing of shares. They go on to describe the links created between privatized enterprises and government by devices such a golden shares and analyse the constraints of competition law and the regulatory arrangements in Britain. They also compare the British regulatory agencies with those in the US, looking in particular at the way in which the influence of Federal and State constitutions has led to the incorporation of significant elements of openness in decision-making procedures. This detailed analysis of the effect of legal constraints on economic policy adds a constitutional dimension to what has primarily been seen as an economic issue, and will make a unique and valuable contribution to current debates in political studies.