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Accident Compensation Act 2001

Miscellaneous provisions - Regulation-making powers

326: Regulations relating to lump sum compensation

You could also call this:

“Rules for giving out lump sum payments for injuries”

The Governor-General can make rules about lump sum compensation for injuries. These rules can say when your injury is stable enough to get compensation. They can also use medical guides to assess how badly you’re hurt.

The rules can change how much money you get for different injuries. They can also explain how to figure out compensation if you have more than one injury or if you were hurt before 1 April 2002.

Before making these rules, the Minister must ask people who know about this stuff what they think. The rules might use information from other documents. If they do, you can look at those documents for free at an ACC office.

When the rules use information from other documents, that information becomes part of the rules. But if those other documents change later, the rules don’t change automatically.

These rules are called “secondary legislation”. This means they have to be published in a certain way. Some parts of the law about how to make rules don’t apply to the medical guides and other documents used in these rules.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM103491.

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Part 9 Miscellaneous provisions
Regulation-making powers

326Regulations relating to lump sum compensation

  1. For the purposes of Part 3 of Schedule 1, the Governor-General may, on the recommendation of the Minister, by Order in Council, make regulations specifying when a claimant's condition is to be regarded as stabilised for the purposes of clause 57 of Schedule 1.

  2. The Governor-General may, on the recommendation of the Minister, by Order in Council, make regulations for the purposes of Part 3 of Schedule 1 to give effect to those provisions, including regulations that—

  3. refer to, or incorporate by reference, in whole or in part, the American Medical Association Guides to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment:
    1. refer to, or incorporate by reference, guides, frameworks, or other standards:
      1. prescribe an assessment tool that in itself may refer to, or incorporate by reference, in whole or in part, any thing referred to in paragraph (a) or paragraph (b):
        1. do any combination of the things referred to in paragraphs (a) or (b) or (c):
          1. amend the lump sum compensation amounts payable under clause 56 of Schedule 1:
            1. prescribe calculations and rules for determining the combined effect of personal injury for a claimant who has suffered more than 1 personal injury, for the purposes of clause 59(5) of Schedule 1:
              1. prescribe calculations and rules for adjusting the whole-person impairment score of a claimant to take into account the effect of injuries suffered before 1 April 2002:
                1. prescribe the scale of lump sum compensation amounts payable in respect of different degrees of whole-person impairment under clauses 56 and 60 of Schedule 1 so that the amount increases exponentially or otherwise as the degree of impairment increases:
                  1. prescribe such other matters as may be desirable to enable the assessment, calculation, and payment of lump sums.

                    1. The Minister must not make any recommendation under subsection (1) or subsection (2) without first consulting the persons or organisations that the Minister considers appropriate, having regard to the subject matter of the proposed regulations.

                    2. Any material referred to or incorporated by reference in regulations under this section forms part of the regulations for all purposes. However, any amendment made to the material after the commencement of the regulations does not have effect until regulations have been made incorporating the amendment into the regulations.

                    3. The Corporation must allow a claimant to inspect any material referred to or incorporated by reference in regulations under this section. The inspection must be free of charge and take place at one of the Corporation's offices.

                    4. Regulations under this section are secondary legislation (see Part 3 of the Legislation Act 2019 for publication requirements).

                    5. Subpart 1 of Part 3 and section 114 of the Legislation Act 2019 do not apply to material that is incorporated by reference under subsection (2)(a), (b), or (c) merely because it is incorporated.

                    Notes
                    • Section 326(6): inserted, on , by section 3 of the Secondary Legislation Act 2021 (2021 No 7).
                    • Section 326(7): inserted, on , by section 3 of the Secondary Legislation Act 2021 (2021 No 7).