Executive Summary
2. As part of the Quality Regulation Review, Cabinet agreed to enhance the RIS regime, which is administered by the Regulatory Impact Analysis Unit (RIAU) in the Ministry of Economic Development (MED). This paper reports back on the implementation details of the enhancements and other refinements to the regime, which will come into effect on 1 April 2007.
3. To implement the requirement to prepare a draft RIS for consultation, I propose that:
- departments include questions and/or discussion of each of the substantive RIS sections (or a draft RIS) at a level that is reasonable given the stage of the policy development process in all discussion documents for proposals that require a RIS;
- where a draft RIS is not used, the discussion document should state that the substantive RIS sections have been covered off;
- the RIAU comment on discussion documents that are expected to result in proposals that are likely to have a significant impact on economic growth to advise on whether the design of the discussion document is likely to result in an adequate final RIS; and
- departments include the final RIS when circulating Cabinet papers for departmental consultation.
4. To implement the RIAU's focus on proposals that are likely to have a significant impact on economic growth, I propose that Cabinet agree to the more specific tests that have been developed (see section B).
5. I propose that Cabinet agree to the following further refinements.
- I propose that the RIS provide only a summary of the required information and that the RIS format be amended to focus on impacts and analysis. This will reduce duplication between the RIS and Cabinet paper.
- I propose to clarify ambiguities and update the rules around when a RIS is required.
- I propose that tax policy changes be exempt from the requirement to complete the implementation and review section of the RIS because of the extensive consultation embedded in the generic tax policy process. This involves consultation on implementation and provides adequate scope for review of tax policy changes.
- I propose that all RISs be published, rather than just RISs with Business Compliance Cost Statements (BCCSs), which is the current requirement.
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