Regulation
Page updated 29 Oct 2009
Regulation can be used to pursue economic, social and environmental goals from which the community derives benefit. High quality regulation is important for productivity and economic growth. The challenge is to ensure that regulations deliver their objectives at least economic cost, thereby contributing the maximum net benefit to society.
The Treasury's Role
The Treasury has been assigned responsibility for New Zealand’s regulatory management system, expanding its role into three areas. These are:
- Independent assessment of the adequacy of economically significant regulatory proposals against the government expected standards for regulatory impact analysis and statements. This work was previously undertaken by the Regulatory Impact Analysis Unit in the Ministry of Economic Development (MED), but from 3 November 2008 sits with the Treasury’s Regulatory Impact Analysis Team (RIAT).
- Responsibility for setting a prioritised regulatory review work programme and co-ordinating across government agencies to deliver on this programme.
- Strategic co-ordination of the regulatory quality system. This includes redesigning and strengthening the regulatory quality management system to support the government’s objective of less and better quality regulation. Treasury is doing this in collaboration with MED.
These functions complement Treasury’s role as the government’s primary economic and fiscal advisor. In this role the Treasury reports to both the Minister of Finance (Hon Bill English) and the Minister for Regulatory Reform (Hon Rodney Hide).
Information and Resources on the Treasury Website
- Regulatory Review Work Programme
- Government Statement on Regulation: Better Regulation, Less Regulation
- Regulatory Responsibility Bill and Taskforce - Includes the Report of the Regulatory Responsibility Taskforce released in October 2009
- Regulatory Impact Analysis - Information and guidance material on RIAT’s role, regulatory impact analysis and preparing a Regulatory Impact Statement.
- Ministerial Media Releases and Speeches - Links to Ministers speeches and media releases on the Beehive website on regulatory issues.
- Regulatory Impact Statements - Disclosed by government departments and published by the Treasury.