Plain language law

New Zealand law explained for everyone

Resource Management Act 1991

Environmental Protection Authority

42CA: Cost recovery for specified function of EPA

You could also call this:

“The EPA can ask people to pay for help it gives them, but only for what it actually costs and what's fair.”

If the Minister asks the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) to provide support services to someone, the Minister can tell the EPA to recover the costs from that person. The EPA can then ask the person to pay for these services, but only for the costs that aren’t already covered by government funding.

If you’re the person receiving these services, you can ask the EPA to tell you how much it might cost before they start. This way, you’ll know what to expect.

When the EPA is figuring out how much to charge, they need to think about a few things:

  1. They should only charge enough to cover their reasonable costs.
  2. You should only have to pay for the parts of the service that benefit you personally, not the parts that benefit everyone.
  3. If you do anything that makes the EPA’s job easier or cheaper, they should charge you less.

If the EPA asks you to pay for these services, you have to pay. It’s a debt you owe to the government, and the EPA can take you to court to get the money if you don’t pay.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM7235360.

Topics:
Environment and resources > Conservation
Government and voting > Government departments
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42C: Functions of EPA, or

“The Environmental Protection Authority helps with important decisions about the environment and provides support to other groups working on environmental matters.”

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42D: Secretary for the Environment to exercise functions of EPA, or

“The boss of the Environment team can do the jobs of the Environmental Protection Authority.”

Part 4A Environmental Protection Authority

42CACost recovery for specified function of EPA

  1. If the Minister asks the EPA under section 42C(dab) to provide secretarial and support services to a person (a supported person),—

  2. the Minister may direct the EPA to recover from that person the actual and reasonable costs incurred by the EPA in providing the services; and
    1. the EPA may recover those costs in accordance with the direction, but only to the extent that they are not provided for by an appropriation under the Public Finance Act 1989.

      1. The EPA must, on request by the supported person, provide an estimate of the costs likely to be recovered under this section.

      2. When recovering costs under this section, the EPA must have regard to the following criteria:

      3. the sole purpose is to recover the reasonable costs incurred in providing the services:
        1. the supported person should be required to pay for costs only to the extent that the benefit of the services provided by the EPA is obtained by that person as distinct from the community as a whole:
          1. the extent to which any activity by the supported person reduces the cost to the EPA of providing the services.

            1. If the EPA requires a supported person to pay costs recoverable under this section, the costs are a debt due to the Crown that is recoverable by the EPA on behalf of the Crown in any court of competent jurisdiction.

            Notes
            • Section 42CA: inserted, on , by section 24 of the Resource Legislation Amendment Act 2017 (2017 No 15).