Events
The RPI can today announced the date of the 3rd meeting of the Economic Strategy and Governance Study Group, which will take place at the
The RPI regularly hosts events in London and Oxford with presentations by distinguished speakers on a range of regulatory and competition policy issues.
Our flagship events are two annual conferences, held in the spring and the autumn, and the Hertford Seminars in Regulation, held throughout the year.
Hertford Seminars provide an opportunity for expert, lively, and informal discussion of major public policy issues, both during the seminar itself, and, typically, over food and drink afterwards, for those who are able to stay on to continue the conversation. Numbers are restricted to encourage interchanges under the Chatham House Rule. The mix of attendees typically reflects the diversity of RPI members and supporters in government, business, the professions, and academia.
Our two annual conferences are the Westminster Conference, a one day conference of particular interest to policy makers, regulators, and the regulated industries, held each spring, and our Competition and Regulation Policy Conference held in Oxford over two days in September, and including the Zeeman Lecture and our Distinguished Fellows Dinner.
Attendance at our conferences is open to all, while our seminar series is generally by invitation only, with priority given to RPI Members. If you would like to enquire about any of these events, or be added to our invitation list, please contact us:
We can today announce the date of the second meeting, which will take place on the 3rd October, with the same timings as the first meeting (arrival from 5pm, 5:30pm start time, concluding at 7pm with wine available for attendees), again at the National Liberal Club. We will confirm the topic in the coming weeks.
The RPI can announce the dates for our 2024 Annual Competition and Regulation Conference. This will be hosted at Lady Margaret Hall on the 9th-10th September 2024. The theme of the conference is Challenges for the New Government: Identifying Strategic Priorities
The RPI is launching a new event series, titled “Economic Strategy and Governance Study Group”, that will meet on a regular basis in Central London.
The Institute is pleased to announce that we will be hosting another of our Hertford Seminars, given by Professor George Yarrow, entitled: ‘The destructive persistence of the Nirvana Fallacy in public policy and debate’
The Institute is pleased to announce that we will be hosting one of our Hertford Seminars with a discussion led by Mark Sedwill.
We are pleased to share the dates for the Annual Competition and Regulation Conference. It will be held on the 27th & 28th of September at Lady Margaret Hall. We hope to see you there!
In this new academic year, the Institute will be moving to a new events structure, placing less emphasis on ‘omnibus’ conferences in favour of colloquia and seminars, in order to give more sustained attention to major priority issues in regulation. The upcoming Annual Conference stands at the cusp of the change and so this year there will be no conference fee, only a charge of £125+VAT to cover meal and refreshment expenses (including the food and drink costs of the Distinguished Fellows Dinner) and a charge of £80+VAT for those wanting to reside in the College on the night of 27 September.
We are pleased to announce that bookings are now open for the 2023 Westminster Conference.
Consistent with the RPI’s purpose (promoting the study of regulation for the public benefit), this year’s Westminster Conference will take a form closer to a ‘teach in’ or a challenging away-day than is traditional, particularly in the morning.
We are pleased to announce that the Institute’s annual conference, originally scheduled for 19th/20th September and cancelled due to the timing of state funeral of HM Queen Elizabeth II, has been rescheduled for the afternoon of the 7th and all day the 8th December.
We are please to announce that our Annual Westminster Conference will be held on Wednesday the 11th of May at One Great George Street.
Regulatory Policy Institute events are back!
For two days in September, we will pool collective experiences on the question of ‘rethinking regulation’ with those working in Government, regulatory bodies, regulated companies, their legal and economic advisers, as well as those from the academic community in order to see whether we can draw out any principles that could be applied in the design of UK regulatory policy in a post-Brexit, post-Covid world.
We will ask ourselves: what do we need to do to rethink regulation?
The Regulatory Policy Institute is delighted to announce that John Penrose MP will be presenting his independent report on UK competition policy to an RPI
Chair:Dr Tony Balance, Director of Strategy and Regulation, Severn Trent Water Ltd.Contributions fromMorgan Wild, Senior Policy Researcher at Citizens AdviceTom Kibasi, Director of Institute for
James Richardson, Chief Economist at the National Infrastructure Commission and Jonathan Brearley, Executive Director of Systems and Networks, Ofgem. Lord David Currie will give the
Chair:Steve Smith, Lloyds Banking Group Contributions from:Laura Sandys, Challenging IdeasSian Jones, XoservePhil Jones, Northern Powergrid
Our Westminster Conference brought these themes together to examine the central question of the new social licence to operate. The conference included contributions from international experience as well as policy makers, regulated companies and advisors across the utility sector
Delivered by:Kersti Berge, Director for Energy and Climate Change, Scottish Government. with remarks from Professor George Yarrow, Chairman Emeritus and founder, RPI
Chair:Dr Tony Ballance, Director of Strategy and Regulation, Severn Trent Water Contributions from:Jason Mann, Senior Managing Director, FTI Consulting;Emily Clark, Chief Economist, BT Group;Lewis Dale,
Chair:Ed Humpherson (UK Statistics Authority) Contributions from:Siobhan Carty, ORR;David Black, Ofwat; andJason Dorsett, Chief Finance Officer, Oxford Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
This year’s conference had a single theme: the use of evidence in decisions taken by regulatory agencies and competition law enforcement bodies. It is motivated
Delivered by:Sharon Darcy, Director, Sustainability First
Based on accumulated knowledge and experience, the conference examined the features of a number of the major pathologies that can have adverse effects on the functioning of regulatory processes, including the signs, causes, and potential means of remediation of recurring malfunctions.
A roundtable discussion with contributions from:Professor Robert Hahn, Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment, University of Oxford;Cathryn Ross, Ofwat;Tony Ballance, Severn Trent Water;Maxine Frerk,
This year’s conference occurred in a period of great disturbance and volatility that poses multiple challenges, not only to the ways in which competition and
The general theme of the day was an examination of the ways in which the conduct of public policy can become disordered over time.
Lord David Owen and discussant: Jonathan Faull We were very grateful to Hogan Lovells for hosting this seminar
The 25th Anniversary Conference was an extended discussion and assessment of the policy record. Sponsored by Linklaters.
The gathering took a broad look at market and regulatory governance issues, and the focus was on the institutional arrangements for the making of relevant decisions rather than on any particular decisions that have or might be taken.
The 2015 conference was convened as a symposium with fewer platform presentations and more time for discussion of thorny issues. Each presentation focussed on the
Steve Webb, formerly Pensions Minister
As always, the programme sought to promote the exchange of insights across traditional intellectual and professional boundaries (e.g. economic/legal) and among different groups involved or
The 2014 Westminster conference provided an opportunity for a sustained examination of the related challenges of securing coherence and stability in the conduct of regulatory
This one day conference in London examined the performance of independent regulatory agencies and assessing the factors that appear to have significant effects on regulatory conduct, in order to draw out implications for the future evolution of independent regulation.
Held in conjunction with the Centre for Competition and Regulatory Policy, City University, London, this conference examined decision-making in the regulatory and competition policy arena,
The RPI 20th anniversary conference.
David Gray Lead Reviewer, Ofwat
This conference considered the consequences of potentially more prescriptive regulatory policy in the context of perceived regulatory and market failures.
In partnership with the ESRC Centre for Competition Policy UEA and sponsored by Hogan Lovells and Oxera.
The conference considered the perceived challenges arising from integrating competition with other policy objectives.
The general theme of this conference was major challenges at the competition/regulation boundaries arising from technological change and from environmental policy pressures.
The 2007 conference focussed on competition issues in markets that are, in one way or another, heavily influenced by sector-specific regulation.
Programme not available.
Programme not available
Mr Justice Swift presiding;, Thomas Sharpe QC and Matthew Cook for the defence; Peter Roth QC and Clair Dobbin, prosecuting counsel.
Mr Bruno Lescoeur, Director, Generation & Trading, Electricité de France & Former Chairman, London Electricity
Sir Christopher Bellamy QC, President, Competition Appeals Tribunal
Mr Tom Winsor, The Rail Regulator
Mr Philip Fletcher, Director General of Water Services (Ofwat)
Ms Patricia Hodgson CBE, Chief Executive, Independent Television Commission
Mr John Frank, Assoicate General Counsel for Europe, Middle East and Africa, Microsoft.
A roundtable discussion led by Professor George Yarrow, Professor Paul Grout and Dr David Slater, Chairman RPI Environmental Unit.
Mr Andrew Whittaker, General Counsel, Financial Services Authority
Sir Christopher Bellamy QC, President, Competition Appeals Tribunal
Mr John Hayes CBEMr John Hayes CBE, Chairman, Occupational Pensions Authority
Mike Alexander, Managing Director, British Gas
Professor Fan Gang, China State Council
Mr Douglas Andrew
International conference held at Nuffield College, Oxford, and Maison Français, Oxford, chaired by Paul Champsaur, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques (INSEE)
Dr David Clark, Senior Research Scientist, MIT Laboratory for Computer Science
Ian Byatt, Director General, Office of Water Services
Howard Davies, Chairman, Financial Services Authority
Professor Richard Whish, King’s College, London
Derek Morris Chairman, Monopolies and Mergers Commission
Paul Portnoy, President, US think tank Resources for the Future, and David Slater CB former Chief Inspector, Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Pollution. Irwin Stelzer, Director,
Mark Addison, Director of the Better Regulation Unit.
Mr R Giordano, Chairman, British Gas
Lord Gordon Borrie, former Director of Fair Trading.
Professor Allan Fels, Head of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission
Dr Chris Towler, Director, International and Manufacturing Regulatory Affairs, Glaxo Wellcome
Colette Bowe, Chief Executive, Personal Investment Authority
John Bridgeman, Director General of Fair Trading
A half day conference concluding the Leverhulme Trust sponsored project providing dissemination of results and presentations by regulatory officials from the utilities sector.
Roger Laughton, Chief Executive, Meridian Broadcasting
Chaired by Peter Freeman, Simmons and Simmons, with George Yarrow, discussant.
Fernand Sauer, Executive Director, European Agency for the Evaluation of Medical Products
Clare Spottiswoode, Director General, Ofgas
Dr Irwin Stelzer, Director of Regulatory Studies, American Enterprise Institute
Jim Ellis Chief Executive, SEEBOARD
Sir Christopher Foster, Coopers & Lybrand
Dr David Jefferys, Medicines Control Agency
John Steele, Prisma Transport Consultants, and formerly Director-General of Transport, European Commission
The Rt Hon. Michael Portillo M.P., Chief Secretary to the Treasury
Maev Sullivan, Mercury Communications and Martin Taschdjian, US West
International workshop held over 5 days at Hertford College, Oxford
Stephen Littlechild, Director General of Electricity Supply
Jonathan Rickford, Director, Government Relations, British Telecom
Christopher Jones, DGIV, European Commission
Professor Malcolm Grant, Professor of Land Economy, University of Cambridge
Roundtable discussion
John Palmer, Special Adviser to the Chairman, British Rail
Dr Martin Howe, Office of Fair Trading
Ian Byatt Director General of Water Services
Sir Kenneth Berrill former chairman of the Securities and Investment Board.
Round table discussion with Peter Adams, Nigel Shaw, George Yarrow and others.
Michel Waelbroeck, Professor of Law, University of Brussels