Institute of Regulation Annual Conference 2024

Views and vision from the UK’s leading conference in regulation

Objective RegWorks and the Institute of Regulation (IoR) hosted the second IoR annual conference on Thursday 7 March 2024, with the Objective team delighted to contribute as conference partner and headline sponsor once again.

Exploring ‘A smarter future for UK regulation?’, the conference attracted over 160 regulatory experts and professionals from a wide range of organisations, supporting the event in fast becoming established as the UK’s leading conference in regulation.

Here, we reflect on another successful event with content contributions from the Institute and three conference rapporteurs.

Conference keynotes summary
Written by the Institute of Regulation

Conference delegates heard from Minister for Investment and Regulatory Reform, Lord Dominic Johnson, who recognised the importance of regulation to the UK, and urged regulators to work to ensure that regulation is proportionate and promotes growth. He acknowledged the role the government and parliament also play to support effective regulation. He welcomed further contact with the UK regulatory community.

The conference opened with Sir Martyn Oliver giving his first public speech since taking his role as His Majesty’s Inspector at Ofsted, earlier in 2024. He made clear his commitment to good regulation and the priority he attaches to ensuring that the 97,000 organisations inspected or regulated by Ofsted do the best job they can, particularly for those children and young people in vulnerable situations. He signalled that Ofsted was about to start a ‘Big Listen’ to connect with Ofsted’s stakeholders, including in the UK regulatory community.

Marcial Boo, Institute of Regulation chair, in welcoming delegates to the conference, encouraged all UK regulators to learn from each other so that smarter regulation can help UK businesses to grow and public services to improve, with appropriate protections for everyone.

Kirsty Dusting, Global VP, RegTech, Objective Corporation, encouraged delegates to learn from international good practice, including in the use of emerging technologies.


Views from the annual conference reporters

The Institute of Regulation invited three early-career public body experts to join the conference as rapporteurs.

All provided insight and perspectives on key conference topics as follows:

  • What can the UK learn from international approaches to regulation?
    Callum Parris, Research Assistant at the Institute for Government (IfG)

    Callum recapped Objective RegWorks’ breakout session with regulatory consultant Naomi Nicholson, which underscored the significance of international knowledge exchange, spotlighting New Zealand's pioneering regulatory stewardship model as a holistic approach to maintaining and updating regulations.

  • What can regulators do to achieve ‘Smarter Regulation’?
    Maddy Bishop, Researcher at the Institute for Government (IfG)

    Maddy reviewed the conference’s exploration of avenues for regulatory improvement, emphasising the importance of enhanced communication, innovation, and government support amidst resource constraints and outdated legal mandates.

  • Artificial Intelligence, keeping humans in the loop
    Ellie Copeland, Digital, New Technologies and Public Policy MA, Sciences Po

    Ellie focused on discussions surrounding the regulation of artificial intelligence (AI) in the UK, including emphasising the need for transparency, accountability, and cross-sectoral collaboration in addressing the challenges posed by generative AI technologies.


To read the three short pieces above, visit the Institute of Regulation website here.

To find out more about Objective RegWorks, visit our solution page.


Images taken by Institute of Regulation Annual Conference 2024 photographer, Sarah Turton.