Learning to be virtual regulators: inspection and compliance in the age of COVID

For regulators already utilising new technologies, COVID lockdowns and rules validated and/or accelerated their existing direction. But what about the many regulators reliant on site and face-to-face inspections, for good reasons not related to technological capability? These might include high-risk duty holders, the intelligence to be gained from sighting the working environment, the preventative benefits of ‘casting a visible regulatory shadow’, the cues coming from the duty holder’s workforce, or the vulnerability of the duty holder’s clients.

Our diverse panel of regulators will share their experiences of being forced by necessity to become virtual regulators in a hurry. How much do we think regulatory practice is being permanently changed by COVID-driven changes in operating procedures or are the formerly face-to-face regulators longing to return to a pre-COVID normal?

• Facilitator: Erica McLuckie
• Speaker 1: Peter Dunphy
• Speaker 2: Samantha Taylor PSM
• Speaker 3: Benjamin Noyen (presentation slides)