The proposed Regulatory Standards Bill aims to reduce the amount of unnecessary and poor regulation by increasing transparency and making it clearer where regulation does not meet standards.

The proposed Bill has not yet been drafted and views are being sought on a proposal on what it should contain.

The proposed Bill would:

• set out a benchmark for good regulation through a set of principles of responsible regulation – focusing on the effect of regulation on rights, liberties and freedoms, as well as outlining good law-making processes
• provide for expectations and processes to transparently assess the consistency of new legislative proposals and existing regulation with the principles. In essence, these would require new and existing regulation to be assessed against the principles and responsible Ministers to either ensure these inconsistencies are remedied, or publicly justify these inconsistencies
• establish a Regulatory Standards Board that would independently consider whether existing regulation was consistent with the principles, primarily in response to stakeholder concerns.

The proposed Bill would also:

• strengthen regulatory stewardship expectations for agencies, including requiring them to publish and regularly report against a plan for review of their regulatory systems
• give the Minister and Ministry for Regulation powers to help carry out regulatory reviews efficiently and effectively, including providing a power for the Ministry’s Chief Executive to require information to be provided from a broad range of entities, and
• give the Ministry for Regulation power to require information from agencies to support a regular report assessing the overall performance of the Regulatory Management System for the Minister for Regulation to present to Parliament.

Consultation closes: Monday 13 January 2025