Assessing the stock of regulation: A tool for regulatory stewards

Abstract

New Zealand, like other OECD countries, has been active in developing a regulatory management system since the mid-1980s but the prime focus has been posing ‘big policy’ questions to review the flow of new laws and regulations through tools such as Regulatory Impact Assessment. Until recently responsibility for keeping the stock of regulation up to date was not assigned. New Zealand regulatory policy has gone through four overlapping phases (Gill 2016): 1. Sector-based reform – with extensive regulatory reform in 1984 and the early 1990s and ongoing changes thereafter 2. Compliance cost reduction – an episodic series of initiatives introduced from the early 1990s until the mid-2000s 3. Regulatory flow management – the flow of new regulations has been focussed through Regulatory Impact Analysis (RIA) and a Code of Good Regulatory Practice commencing in 1998 4. Regulatory stock management – increased emphasis on stock management, starting in 2009, in addition to flow management.