What does it actually take to build a profession out of regulation, from scratch?

Marcial Boo has spent three decades in UK public service, running four regulators across entirely different domains – the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, the Equality and Human Rights Commission, the Public Health Register during COVID-19, and now the Insolvency Practitioners Association (IPA). In 2021, he also founded the Institute of Regulation (IoR), built from a handful of volunteers into the UK's professional home for regulators.

In this conversation, Boo discusses why so few regulators think of themselves as regulators first, what it takes to move a Member of Parliament (MP) expenses system from paper receipts to algorithmic outlier detection, and why he sees a structural gap between policymaking and implementation as one of the system's biggest sources of friction.

This episode covers:

• Why regulatory identity is still "in the foothills" of becoming a genuine profession, and what the IoR is doing to build it
• The IPSA data story: how Boo took MP expenses from stapled paper receipts to a system that could flag suspicious mileage claims across 650 constituencies
• Whether a growth duty and regulatory independence can coexist, and why Boo believes stability is itself pro-growth
• The structural tension in the IPA's dual role as both a membership body and a regulator, and why Boo expects it to eventually split, as has happened in law and medicine
• Boo's magic wand answer: the understanding gap between the people who design regulation and the people who implement it

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This episode is made possible with the support of Objective RegWorks – the software for regulators.

In part two, the conversation shifts from the reform story to the bigger questions.

Sandra Parker PSM, former head of the Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO) and now a coach and facilitator for senior regulatory leaders through the Jeff Whalan Learning Group, talks about what she sees consistently in incoming regulatory leaders: the gaps that trip them up, the knowledge that nobody hands over at appointment, and what she'd fix if she had a magic wand.

Sandra also discusses the New Head of Regulator Pocket Guide, a practical resource Sandra helped develop through the Commonwealth Regulator Leadership Cohort. It was designed to give new heads of regulator the grounding the system doesn't otherwise provide. You can download it here.

This episode covers:

• The moment she found (or didn't find) her footing as a new regulator
• The most common capability gaps in incoming regulatory leaders: legislation, social licence, and the practical skills no handbook covers
• The case for mandatory induction, mentoring, and coaching at appointment, and why it should be in the minister's letter
• The Commonwealth Regulator Leadership Cohort and the heads of regulator pocket guide
• Enforcement philosophy: education vs compliance, and where the balance should sit
• The magic wand question and Sandra's answer, which isn't a policy reform
• Who shaped her thinking (hint: she went and sat in on other regulators' enforcement board meetings)

If you haven't listened to part one, start there.

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This episode is made possible with the support of Objective RegWorks – the software for regulators.

What does it actually feel like to move from shaping regulation to enforcing it?

Sandra Parker PSM spent eight years as a Commonwealth Deputy Secretary, close to ministers, consulted on everything, and in the room for every major workplace relations decision in Australia. Then in 2018 she stepped across to lead the Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO), overseeing workplace relations for two million employers and fifteen million workers – and the room went quiet.

In part one of this conversation, Sandra discusses the transition that catches so many regulatory leaders off guard: the moment independence arrives and the informal infrastructure disappears. Sandra describes walking into an agency publicly labelled "toothless," with 18 court matters a year, and what she did about it, including a legal interpretation that had been quietly paralysing the agency's enforcement toolkit for years.

This episode covers:

• The isolation shock of moving from policy to regulation and why it's a structural problem, not a personal one
• The department–regulator relationship: what it should look like, and what it usually does
• The 7-Eleven wage theft scandal, the Fels task force, and the burning platform Sandra inherited
• How a capability review and a seconded chief counsel changed the FWO's enforcement posture
• Compliance notices: from 220 a year to 2,500, and what that shift actually required

Part two of this episode is available now.

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This episode is made possible with the support of Objective RegWorks – the software for regulators.