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‘Risk-Based’ Regulatory Reform

Summary of the impact

Over the last decade, research by the Department of Geography's King's Centre for Risk Management (KCRM) has helped successive UK governments to reform regulation by making regulatory inspection and enforcement more `risk-based'. Risk-based approaches promise to make regulation more efficient by targeting regulatory activities only at cases that pose unacceptable risks rather than by trying to prevent all possible harms. KCRM research has helped make UK regulation more risk-based in three important ways. First, KCRM research significantly informed the key recommendation of HM Treasury's Hampton Review of Administrative Burdens on Business that all regulatory inspection and enforcement should be risk-based. Second, KCRM supported the implementation of that recommendation when it gained statutory force for almost all regulators in 2008 through practical advice to a number of government departments and agencies. Third, KCRM's impact on regulatory reform was reinforced by HM Government's full acceptance and ongoing implementation of Löfstedt's recommendations to strengthen risk-based regulatory practice in his 2011 Independent Review of Health and Safety Regulation.

Submitting Institution

King's College London

Unit of Assessment

Geography, Environmental Studies and Archaeology

Summary Impact Type

Political

Research Subject Area(s)

Studies In Human Society: Policy and Administration
Law and Legal Studies: Law

Risk based regulation: the challenge of lower risks

Summary of the impact

The four Environment Agencies in England & Wales, Northern Ireland, Scotland and the Republic of Ireland have introduced, or are planning to introduce, new strategies for regulating low risk treatment sites and activities. These strategies are based on Black and Baldwin's research. Implementation is planned for 2011-13 onwards. The Irish Environmental Protection Agency has led the way in 2012-13, having already implemented GRID/GRAF in a specific low risk area (domestic waste water).

Submitting Institution

London School of Economics & Political Science

Unit of Assessment

Law

Summary Impact Type

Environmental

Research Subject Area(s)

Medical and Health Sciences: Public Health and Health Services
Studies In Human Society: Policy and Administration
Law and Legal Studies: Law

Effects of Interactions on Risk

Summary of the impact

Research by Reimer Kühn (RK) and collaborators has produced a framework to study and quantify the influence of interactions on risk in complex systems, including default risk in economy-wide networks of financial exposures. This work has had impact on practitioners and professional services dealing with financial risk, including research groups at central banks, who — partly in response to the recent financial crisis — have adopted such network oriented approaches to analyse and quantify systemic risk. The Financial Stability Division at the Bank of England has, for instance, developed refined versions of the network-oriented models proposed by Kühn and collaborators to specifically assess risk in the British banking system.

Submitting Institution

King's College London

Unit of Assessment

Mathematical Sciences

Summary Impact Type

Economic

Research Subject Area(s)

Mathematical Sciences: Statistics
Economics: Econometrics
Commerce, Management, Tourism and Services: Banking, Finance and Investment

Enhancing Effectiveness, Structure and Consumer Protection in Financial Regulation

Summary of the impact

Loughborough University research into financial regulation has had a significant and enduring influence on how regulatory bodies are structured and how they use economic analysis. This work has been credited with shaping the groundbreaking culture and methodology of financial regulation in the UK with respect to consumer protection, recognising the special characteristics of retail financial products and contracts and applying cost-benefit and regulatory impact analysis in decision-making processes. It has also played a major role in redefining financial regulatory structure in the UK and South Africa. In addition, the research is now being used to help develop and guide approaches to ensuring high standards of bank regulation and consumer protection across the EU through the European Banking Authority's Banking Stakeholder Group.

Submitting Institution

Loughborough University

Unit of Assessment

Business and Management Studies

Summary Impact Type

Economic

Research Subject Area(s)

Economics: Applied Economics
Commerce, Management, Tourism and Services: Banking, Finance and Investment
Law and Legal Studies: Law

Strengthening global regulatory capacity for nanomaterials risks

Summary of the impact

Dr Robert Falkner's research into international risk regulation for emerging technologies underpins the work of the Nanotechnology Policy and Regulation programme at LSE. On the basis of this work, Dr Falkner was tasked by the European Commission to lead the first ever comparative study of nanotechnologies regulation in the EU and US. This research has stimulated policy debates in the UK and Europe on how to strengthen regulatory capacity in the field of nanotechnologies. The research has highlighted, in particular, the importance of improved transparency about nanomaterials in consumer goods and supply chains. This research finding has influenced the conclusions of the first UK parliamentary enquiry into nanotechnologies regulation and has informed a recent shift in global policy debates towards comprehensive and mandatory nanomaterials registers.

Submitting Institution

London School of Economics & Political Science

Unit of Assessment

Politics and International Studies

Summary Impact Type

Political

Research Subject Area(s)

Economics: Applied Economics
Studies In Human Society: Policy and Administration
Law and Legal Studies: Law

The ethics of finance and business

Summary of the impact

This case study looks at the impact on the international finance industry and big business of research conducted at Heythrop College by Catherine Cowley. Cowley's work is transforming the ethical framework with which some of the most powerful corporations in the world operate and how they understand their role in society, as well as influencing the direction and content of the public debate over the ethics of finance and business.

Submitting Institution

Heythrop College

Unit of Assessment

Theology and Religious Studies

Summary Impact Type

Societal

Research Subject Area(s)

Mathematical Sciences: Statistics
Economics: Applied Economics
Commerce, Management, Tourism and Services: Banking, Finance and Investment

Informing food hygiene regulation and compliance to prevent food-borne disease and death

Summary of the impact

LSE research on regulatory enforcement and compliance has challenged the assumption that businesses are capable of self-regulation, particularly in sectors critical to public health such as the food business and particularly in terms of small businesses that rely on government regulations to help them identify and manage business risks. This research became the basis for four specific recommendations on the regulation of food hygiene and safety that emerged from a UK Government inquiry into the 2005 E.coli outbreak. All four recommendations have been implemented and mainstreamed into the practices of the Food Standards Agency (FSA). Collectively, they have contributed to a substantial increase in business compliance with food safety standards and a significant reduction in businesses giving 'cause for concern' around transmission of E.coli and other food-borne pathogens.

Submitting Institution

London School of Economics & Political Science

Unit of Assessment

Sociology

Summary Impact Type

Political

Research Subject Area(s)

Medical and Health Sciences: Public Health and Health Services
Commerce, Management, Tourism and Services: Business and Management
Law and Legal Studies: Law

Changing practice and understandings in the global reinsurance sector: strategy tools for risk-trading

Summary of the impact

Aston Business School has changed business activities of major reinsurance firms and awareness and understandings in the global reinsurance industry. It has done so by producing an integrated suite of strategy tools to support strategic positioning, relationship management and risk analysis and trading. Reinsurance firms have adopted these tools in their internal practices, for example, to increase premium income from target clients. The implementation of these tools was facilitated through 58 tailored reports to firms worldwide, 22 commissioned company-specific strategy workshops, targeted distribution of our industry reports, invited presentations at prestigious events, and training activities for reinsurance professionals.

Submitting Institution

Aston University

Unit of Assessment

Business and Management Studies

Summary Impact Type

Economic

Research Subject Area(s)

Mathematical Sciences: Statistics
Economics: Applied Economics
Commerce, Management, Tourism and Services: Banking, Finance and Investment

Competition, Governance and Bank Stability

Summary of the impact

The risk of a systemic crisis and the inability of depositors to monitor how banks are governed are long-standing public policy concerns. Since joining Bangor University in 2008 Professor Klaus Schaeck and collaborators from central banks and international financial organisations have worked to inform the global policy debate on these issues. Specifically, how varying competitive conditions, corporate governance structures and regulatory innovations incentivise the development of safer and sounder banking systems. Notable impacts of Schaeck's research since 2008 include: the use by central banks of his new methodology to gauge banking sector competition; priority change in the policy debate over the structure of bank boards and, in particular, the influence of female executives; and finally heightened policy awareness of the unintended consequences of regulations imposed on troubled or bailed-out banks.

Submitting Institution

Bangor University

Unit of Assessment

Business and Management Studies

Summary Impact Type

Economic

Research Subject Area(s)

Economics: Applied Economics, Econometrics
Commerce, Management, Tourism and Services: Banking, Finance and Investment

Reforming auditing and risk management to improve governance

Summary of the impact

LSE research has become a focal point for understanding how the `crowding' effects of auditable targets can have unintended and often dysfunctional consequences for organisations and the public. The impact has two elements. First, challenging conventional wisdom and stimulating debate among stakeholders and practitioners in their search for best practice. The reach of this challenge has been global and across different fields, including accounting, risk management, public administration, social policy, education and psychiatry. Second, influencing actual changes to auditing and risk management policy and practice arising from these debates.

Submitting Institution

London School of Economics & Political Science

Unit of Assessment

Business and Management Studies

Summary Impact Type

Economic

Research Subject Area(s)

Commerce, Management, Tourism and Services: Accounting, Auditing and Accountability, Business and Management

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