Did we just fix the UK's regulators?
Not yet, but we're nearly there
Just under a year ago,
wrote this:
Since then, we launched Fix The Regulators, our campaign spotlighting how creaking regulatory capacity is holding back founders from scaling their impact. We got both Conservatives and Labour onboard, interviewed Patrick Vallance about this issue before he became a Minister, and then yesterday:
We’re big fans of this announcement and think there’s a huge opportunity for this new Regulatory Innovation Office (RIO) to tackle regulatory barriers and accelerate startups’ route to market. Initially it’ll be focused on:
engineering biology🥩
AI in healthcare 🏥
drones ✈️ & autonomous vehicles 🚘
space 🛰️
So, great news! But we won’t rest until the RIO genuinely leads to a different environment for startups…and there’s still a lot of detail to be worked out.
3 thoughts on how to make the RIO succeed from here:
1. The RIO needs empowering politically & financially
As we discussed in the Financial Times, the RIO will only make the impact we need if it has two key ingredients: political backing — proper Ministerial and PM-level buy-in — and financial backing from HMT (ideally £100m, akin to the AI Safety Institute). It remains to be seen if we have either, both, or neither.
2. Prove the model to win that backing
The initial priority sectors are great choices, but to genuinely prove the model and make a difference, it will need to both narrow down — i.e. focus not just on ‘AI in healthcare’, but accelerating fully-automated diagnostic services like Flok Health to release pressure on health systems — and run hard: initially, the RIO has just been formed as the merger of two teams who had already been working on these issues. To generate a real stepchange, we need a high-urgency, focused, empowered approach to make progress.
3. Unlock new sectors and upgrade existing markets
The initial focus on novel, emerging sectors is great, but we’d also like to see the RIO work on supporting companies in existing markets where barriers to innovation have grown (e.g. fintech, nuclear). This is also where the political and growth wins will be during this Parliament 👀
If you’re building in an area overlapping with the RIO, or you’re in another sector that faces similar challenges, we’d love to hear from you and help share feedback with the RIO team. And if you’re really interested, check out
’s longer report out for UK Day One, a new campaign focused on science and tech for UK progress, about how to make the RIO a success: