Background Part 1 – Regulatory Framework Requirements of category 1 regulators Section 9 – Regulatory committee: composition and membership
43.This section sets out the requirements that apply in relation to the composition of a regulatory committee of a category 1 regulator. At least 50% of the members (including of any sub-committee) must be lay members. A person cannot be a member if the person is, or has been for at least two years, involved in the governing body of the regulator or the exercise of the regulator’s non-regulatory functions. Nor can a person be a member if the person’s right to practise has been removed as a result of a finding of misconduct by a professional or disciplinary body or the person is otherwise suspended from practising (in law or otherwise) by such a body, or if the person has been convicted of an offence involving dishonesty, or if the person has been convicted of an offence other than an offence of dishonesty, and the regulatory committee has determined that they may not be a member.
44.While it is generally for a regulatory committee to appoint its members, there may be situations where a regulatory committee is unable to do so and, in those circumstances, the regulator may appoint members to its regulatory committee. The Act gives the most obvious example of appointing the first members of the regulatory committee (as they could not appoint themselves). However, after that point, it covers the unlikely event that the regulatory committee isn’t quorate or able to appoint new members for some other reason. The regulatory committee may co-opt persons who are not members of the committee. The validity of the committee proceedings is not affected by a vacancy in its membership.
45.Subsection (10) requires a category 1 regulator to publish guidance (most likely prepared or updated by the committee itself) about how it applies subsection (4) (as read with subsection (6)). This is to enable it to provide more details about the specific bodies it regards as being relevant.