Institute of Regulation's Podcast

This month's podcast focuses on how regulators can use communications to tell people how to comply with the rules you're enforcing. We hear from two engagement experts who've worked in regulators, to understand how to get messages across to diverse audiences through varied external and internal channels. A must-listen for everyone working in communications in a regulatory context.  Episode 22 of the Regulation Podcast is hosted by Marcial Boo, chair Institute of Regulation, with contributions from experts Anne Shevas and Stephen Hardwick. 

Regulation is evolving. No longer is it about command-and-control, tick-box inspections. And the risk-based, principled approach is changing too. Leading academics and practitioners now consider that regulators must think of their regulatory domain as a complex system with many actors. This has implications for how regulators approach their work, with a need for agility in their rules and their processes. Episode 21 of the Regulation Podcast in discussion with academic Martin de Bree from the Netherlands and practitioner Alan Clamp from the Professional Standards Authority. 

This month's podcast focuses on the regulation of behaviour in the film, music and other creative industries, where a new regulator has been created. It aims to protect everyone in those industries from bullying and abuse from powerful executives or famous stars. The regulator is the Creative Industries Independent Standards Authority (CIISA). 

The latest edition of The Regulation Podcast focuses on the concept of regulatory capture - what it is and how regulators can avoid getting caught - hearing the expert views of Dr Eva Heims of York University and Dr Justin Rex of Bowling Green University USA, drawing on case studies in their academic publications.

A short guide to regulatory capture from Dr Heims is here: ‘Regulatory-capture-A-short-guide-for-practitioners.pdf’ She will also be contributing to our online workshop on regulatory capture, Thursday 05 December 2024.

The latest Regulation Podcast focuses on AI and how regulators should respond to it. Two global experts, Prof. Julia Black of the LSE and Joey Conway of Deloitte, discuss what AI is, the problems and opportunities it brings, and how regulators should meet its challenges. The main recommendation to regulators is to learn more; and then to work with others. AI crosses sectors and national boundaries. Regulators must too. The Institute of Regulation is in contact with the UK's Digital Regulation Cooperation Forum and others to explore these issues, and hosting events in the autumn for all our members to foster wider collaboration within the UK regulatory community on AI issues. In the meantime, you can listen to the podcast here.

The latest half-hour episode of the Regulation Podcast explores how to regulate vets, with speakers from our member the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons. It presents a case study of one sector, where the regulator is working within outdated legislation and with the consequences of Covid, where more people bought pets but more vets left the profession. Like other regulators, the RCVS has conflicting stakeholders with different demands, ranging from pet owners and farmers through to scientists and government. To listen to the challenges facing the UK's vets regulator, with Lizzie Lockett CEO RCVS and Ben Myring, Policy and Public Affairs Manager, RCVS you can listen here.

In this month's podcast, we discuss what it would mean for regulation to become a recognised profession. We hear from Leonie Milliner, CEO at the General Optical Council, Michael Hanton, Deputy Chief Regulator at Ofqual, and Meg Matthews, Head of Development and People at the Office for Students. They discuss what being a professional regulator means, how skills can be improved, and knowledge transferred, and how they describe what they do to people who don't understand regulation! 

In this podcast we explore what makes a good regulation strategy – and find out why regulators must ensure their strategies are flexible and agile enough to meet the changing demands of society and modern industry.

To discuss this challenge, our guest today is Andrea Sutcliffe CBE, Chief Executive and Registrar of the Nursing and Midwifery Council, the independent regulator for nurses and midwives in the UK, and nursing associates in England.

The NMC regulates over 800,000 professionals with a vision to ensure safe, effective and kind nursing and midwifery practice that improves everyone’s health and wellbeing. Andrea is just starting the process of forming her second five-year strategy for the Council , having previously planned, launched and driven the last one from the moment she arrived at the organisation in 2019. 

As Andrea explains in the podcast, this next strategy has been delayed by a year to now cover 2026-2031 due to the pressures of a post Pandemic workload at NMC. Clearly there has been a huge amount of change in nursing sector in that time – not least caused by the pandemic, the first ever industrial action by nurses in 2022 and of course pressure on skills in the sector caused by Brexit.

And with a General Election coming down the track this year it is unlikely we will see any less turbulence. Andrea discusses all these challenges.

Matthew Gill, Programme Director at the Institute for Government and trustee of the IOR
In today’s discussion will try to unpack the complex relationship between regulation and government and in particular explain and explore how improving one can boost outcomes for the other.

To help with this meaty challenge, our guest today is Matthew Gill, Programme Director at the Institute for Government and something of an expert in both regulation and in the workings of government. Most recently Matthew joined the Institute of Regulation as a director and trustee, where no doubt he will be working hard to champion - and challenge - the role of regulators.

And while we are at it, we also get Matthew’s views on what the regulation sector might expect from this General Election year in terms of likely change coming down the track from a new or perhaps refocused administration.

Guest: Prof. Martin Lodge, professor of political science and public policy at the London School of Economics

Subject: “The fundamentals of regulation”

Our latest podcast guest is Martin Lodge, professor of political science and public policy at the London School of Economics. 

Alongside his day job at the LSE, Martin runs the Institute of Regulation’s new two-day Fundamentals of Regulation course which is specifically designed as a foundation for regulatory professionals and aimed at those who are new to the profession or have only a limited experience in the sector.

In the podcast - and on the course - Martin covers a huge amount of ground on a range of issues such as standards, enforcement, risk assessment, the politics of regulation, and the power of engagement with the public and consumers. He delves into his decades of experience in regulation – experience which has led to him to be known as “one of the leading scholars of regulation”.