Public and private regulation of financial services.

This thesis explores the changing nature of policy making in Britain. It considers the example of a self regulatory regime (under the Financial Services Act 1986), in order to draw conclusion about compenetration of the public and private spheres. Legitimacy is its main focus. It draws conclusions about legitimacy of this particular system, from the viewpoint of industry practitioners and the more general public interest. The empirical work focused upon one group of industry practitioners, and via a postal questionnaire discovered their views about how the regulatory system actually operated. This work, therefore, adds to the literature on the internal legitimacy of self regulatory systems. Furthermore, it looks beyond this internal aspect. By using public law literature it contributes to the debate around how constitutional and administrative law should respond to the growth of various regulatory systems. It argues that self regulation provides a potential for increased legitimacy in policy making but that this self regulatory regime failed to realise that potential. It argues that only a full acceptance of the benefits of self regulation will solve the potential legitimacy deficit that public/private compenetration can cause.