Accountability and integrity in private food safety regulation: Evidence from the Australian food sector
Publikation: Bidrag til tidsskrift › Tidsskriftartikel › Forskning › fagfællebedømt
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Accountability and integrity in private food safety regulation : Evidence from the Australian food sector. / Daugbjerg, Carsten.
I: Australian Journal of Public Administration, Bind 81, Nr. 1, 2022, s. 37-52.Publikation: Bidrag til tidsskrift › Tidsskriftartikel › Forskning › fagfællebedømt
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Accountability and integrity in private food safety regulation
T2 - Evidence from the Australian food sector
AU - Daugbjerg, Carsten
PY - 2022
Y1 - 2022
N2 - With the proliferation of private regulation of food safety, governments have shown interests in engaging private schemes as co-regulators. This raises the issue of accountability in private schemes; that is holding the bodies auditing the standards accountable. The ability to do so affects the integrity of private regulatory schemes. Holding auditors accountable can be conceived of as a principal-agent problem. This article analyses the two most widely used global private food safety standard schemes in the Australian food sector. The analysis shows that the existence of well-developed accountability mechanisms and multiple principals has resulted in a multi-layered and comprehensive system of accountability. Hence, holding auditors accountable to their principals does not appear to be a concern for governments considering to engage in co-regulatory arrangements with private schemes. However, concerns about integrity have been raised. The prescriptive nature of the standards and the multitude of standard schemes with their own accountability arrangements has brought about a situation in which the individual auditors have to devote disproportionately much time to respond to the accountability mechanisms.
AB - With the proliferation of private regulation of food safety, governments have shown interests in engaging private schemes as co-regulators. This raises the issue of accountability in private schemes; that is holding the bodies auditing the standards accountable. The ability to do so affects the integrity of private regulatory schemes. Holding auditors accountable can be conceived of as a principal-agent problem. This article analyses the two most widely used global private food safety standard schemes in the Australian food sector. The analysis shows that the existence of well-developed accountability mechanisms and multiple principals has resulted in a multi-layered and comprehensive system of accountability. Hence, holding auditors accountable to their principals does not appear to be a concern for governments considering to engage in co-regulatory arrangements with private schemes. However, concerns about integrity have been raised. The prescriptive nature of the standards and the multitude of standard schemes with their own accountability arrangements has brought about a situation in which the individual auditors have to devote disproportionately much time to respond to the accountability mechanisms.
KW - accountability
KW - co‐
KW - regulation
KW - food safety
KW - multiple principals
KW - private regulation
KW - GOVERNANCE
KW - INSTITUTIONS
KW - STANDARDS
KW - CONFLICT
KW - ENOUGH
KW - ROLES
U2 - 10.1111/1467-8500.12452
DO - 10.1111/1467-8500.12452
M3 - Journal article
VL - 81
SP - 37
EP - 52
JO - Australian Journal of Public Administration
JF - Australian Journal of Public Administration
SN - 0313-6647
IS - 1
ER -
ID: 251575412