REGULATION

Sponsored by Shepherd & Wedderburn WS

21 March 2001

Callum McCarthy said: "Everything Ofgem does aims to protect the customers of the gas and electricity industry. We act by promoting competition wherever this effective, and by regulation where competition is not possible. Tonight I have looked at whether we could simply rely on competition; whether a separate energy regulator is needed; and whether the present regulatory organisation provides value for money. My answers to the questions I posed are that, while we can and shall work hard to advance by competition, there will remain a residual task of regulation; that the machinery of government question of where competition is promoted is at best a second order question; and that – at either £87 million or at £33 million – the task of promoting competition and of residual regulation is well worthwhile."

Professor Brian Main, Director of The David Hume Institute said: "The Institute is fortunate that Mr Callum McCarthy is to present this seminar. It is anticipated that his talk will provide a platform for open and informed discussion concerning the impact of regulation in the UK, with particular reference to the regulatory agenda for gas and electricity ".

Paul Hally, Chief Executive of Shepherd & Wedderburn WS, said: "Shepherd & Wedderburn is delighted to be associated with this seminar and the others in the 'Regulation' series. As one of the leading Firms advising in the UK electricity sector we take a special interest in what Callum McCarthy has to say, not least because we are heavily involved in advising UK Energy Companies on all of the major initiatives that OFGEM are promoting."

Callum McCarthy is the first joint gas and electricity regulator for Great Britain. He was appointed Director General of Gas Supply on 1 November 1998, and Director General of Electricity Supply on 1 January 1999. Both appointments are effective until October 31, 2003.

He is an economist and graduate of the School of Business at Stanford University (USA), where he was a Sloan Fellow.

His early career was in Department of Trade and Industry where he held a number of posts including Principal Private Secretary to Roy Hattersley when he was Secretary of State for Prices and Consumer protection and to Norman Tebbit when he was Secretary of State for Trade and Industry.

In 1985 he left DTI and joined Kleinwort Benson as Director of Corporate Finance. In 1989 he joined BZW as Managing Director and Deputy Head of Corporate Finance later becoming Chief Executive Officer of Barclays Bank group operations in Japan before moving to head the Bank’s businesses in North America.

Notes to Editors:

The views that will be expressed by the speaker are his own and do not commit the Trustees or Officers of the Institute in any way.