21 May 2025 | 11.30 - 17.00 | Conference
#UKRN25 conference
On 21 May, we held our sixth biennial UKRN conference at the FCA offices in Stratford, east London.
Welcome – David Black (Chief Executive, Ofwat; CEO, UKRN)
David Black opened the conference by welcoming almost 100 delegates from across our membership, delivery partners and trusted stakeholders for a day of stimulating discussion, debate and networking.
Panel 1 – Regulatory approaches and reflections on growth
Our first panel was chaired by Richard Moriarty, CEO of the FRC, and brought together the CEOs of the SSRO (John Russell) and URegNI (John French), with the COO of TPR (Andrew Baigent) for a conversation that focused on growth and how that aligned to delivering benefits for consumers, while supporting innovation.
The panelists also discussed striking a balance between risk and reward, in light of steers from Government on how regulators should calibrate risk. Internally, regulators are striving to communicate a vision of growth that is aligned with their organisations’ values and instills a sense of purpose in staff.
There was a recognition that the UKRN drives collaboration, highlighting best practice across the sectors and delivering tangible outputs and benefits. The panel valued UKRN as a space for regulators to share information and exchange knowledge, as well as for junior colleagues to build networks and improve their understanding of how other sectors are positioned within the regulatory landscape.
Keynote speaker – Justin Madders MP (Minister for Employment Rights, Competition and Markets from the Department for Business and Trade)
We were delighted to introduce our keynote speaker – Minister Justin Madders MP, as the Minister responsible for regulation at the Department for Business and Trade.
In his speech (available to read here), the Minister emphasised the government’s commitment to delivering economic growth, including through the Action Plan for Regulation.
The Plan and its associated commitments were intended to tackle the barriers to growth and investment raised by businesses and regulators (e.g. complexity of processes, layering of statutory duties), with the aim of ensuring that the UK’s regulatory regime addresses risks, while supporting innovation and protecting consumers.
Panel 2 – Growth without compromise: a sustainable journey towards a thriving future
Our second panel session was chaired by James Jenkins (Ofwat, Chair of UKRN’s Climate Change Network) on the topic of sustainable growth. The Committee for Climate Change (Rachel Carr-Whitworth) set the scene, highlighting the key messages from its recent Seventh Carbon Budget Advice and the progress of the UK in reducing its emissions.
This was followed by contributions from the panel members – DESNZ (Jonathan Hoare), Ofgem (Jane Dennett-Thorpe), Energy UK (Adam Berman), and Q&A with the audience.
The themes of the session highlighted the need for collaboration across government, regulators and industry to drive and enable the complex system change that is required to deliver the Clean Energy and Net Zero Mission by 2030.
This is an opportunity to link growth, innovation and climate action, while still considering consumer protection and generational fairness, within a landscape where delivery of emission reduction will become more difficult as we journey to 2050. Capitalising on the strong collaborative ethos of the UKRN to build connections was seen as a key driver to improve understanding of the enabling role of regulators.
Panel 3 – AI and innovation: a regulatory catalyst for growth?
Our third panel session was chaired by Adam Stevens (ICO) on the topic of innovation, with a particular focus on Artificial Intelligence (AI) – specifically, its role as a potential catalyst for growth. We had an initial presentation from McKinsey (Harry Lee) to set the context for the discussion, which covered some recent developments in the field of large-language models.
We then had contributions from each of our panel members – Regulatory Horizons Council (Prof Chris Hodges), Ofcom (Natalie Black) and ICO (Sophia Ignatidou), followed by Q&A with the audience.
This highlighted the need for agile and responsive regulation, given the need to keep pace with the rapid evolution of progress in this area. This would mean having access to the necessary talent and organisational capability, as well as access to necessary infrastructure. Collaboration with the Regulatory Innovation Office and DRCF (Digital Regulation Co-operation Forum) were also identified as key routes to effective working on this topic.
Fireside chat with Nikhil Rathi (CEO, FCA) and Mary Starks (VP Regulations, Risk and Policy, Ovo Energy)
After a brief update from UKRN Director Attricia Archer on UKRN’s progress with its three-year Strategy and latest Annual Delivery Plan, we had a final ‘fireside chat’ session with Nikhil Rathi (FCA) and Mary Starks (Ovo Energy). This touched on the trade-off that regulators face between supporting economic growth and mitigating risk to businesses and consumers, and where to strike that balance depending on public appetite for risk.
The role of regulators in supporting infrastructure investment was also discussed, along with the risk of supply chain bottlenecks leading to higher prices for consumers. There was also a call for regulators to go further and faster in moving to a digital delivery mindset, with the aim of increasing productivity, improving consumer experiences and supporting economic growth.