Regulatory stewardship is a responsibility of government regulatory agencies.  It involves them adopting a whole-of-system, lifecycle view of regulation, and taking a proactive, collaborative approach, to the monitoring and care of the regulatory system(s) within which they have policy or operational responsibilities.

Regulatory stewardship is a statutory obligation for NZ government departments

The NZ State Sector Act now provides that one of the principal responsibilities of a departmental chief executive is to exercise “stewardship of ... the legislation administered by the department”.

• The State Sector Act defines stewardship as the “active planning and management of medium- and long-term interests, along with associated advice”.
• Most pieces of New Zealand  legislation (both primary and delegated)  are administered by a government agency, usually a department.