Regulatory Impact Statement Assessments November 2008 to August 2010 Regulatory Impact Statements - Information Release

Introduction#

There are three categories of RIS assessments:

• Meets Requirements;
• Partially Meets Requirements; and
• Does Not Meet Requirements.

Prior to November 2009 the categories were:

• Adequate;
• Qualified adequacy; and
• Inadequate.

The categories are broadly the same.  The purpose of the assessment is to provide decision-makers with advice on the quality of the information in the RIS and the reliance they should place on the underlying analysis.

Where a RIS is not prepared or not made available to Treasury’s RIA team, there is no assessment.

There are a few caveats to note when interpreting this information (for the regime as it has operated since November 2009):

• The RIS is the advice of the relevant agency, not the Minister.  The Minister can, however, set timeframes for consultations and direct that only certain options be reviewed, which may impact on the final assessment.
• RIAT only assesses RISs for policy projects that consider options that have significant impacts or risks.  Agencies arrange independent assessment for all other RISs.  Therefore there will be a large number of proposals considered by Cabinet that have not been assessed by RIAT.
• Care needs to be taken in drawing judgements about the quality of government decisions and government performance from the assessments.  Failure to achieve a "meets requirements" does not necessarily mean that the policy is poor or that poor performance by officials or Ministers is to blame.  For example, in emergency situations consultation might not be practical, accounting for a RIS Partially or Not Meeting Requirements.

A full description of the criteria and process used for assessing RISs can be found in the Regulatory Impact Analysis Handbook.

Table of Assessments#

Related Information#

• Regulatory Impact Analysis - Treasury guidance on the regulatory impact analysis process.
• Regulatory Impact Statements