Robert Laslett: Biography

Robert Laslett has been DWP's Chief Economist for Pensions and Director of Strategic Analysis since May 2003. He runs the Department's Pensions Analysis Directorate, whose functions include providing economic advice on current pension policy issues, and undertaking research to inform longer-term pension policy strategy. The directorate is responsible for engaging with academics, consumer groups, pension industry representatives and other government departments, as well as with policy staff and Ministers. He is a member of the Pensions Client Board.

Robert has pursued a career as a professional economist in the public and private sectors, both in the UK and overseas. Prior to joining DWP he worked as an economic consultant specializing in financial services topics. He established and headed the London office of Boston-based Charles River Associates in 2000, and set up the financial services practice of London Economics in the 1990s. Earlier in his career, he worked at the World Bank in Washington DC on country lending programmes and country risk analysis, at HM Treasury in London, and in Malawi as a Fellow at the Overseas Development Institute.