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Regulatory Standards Bill

Introduction

You could also call this:

"What This Law Is All About"

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=LMS1016439.


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Regulatory Standards Bill, or

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General policy statement, or

"What this bill is about and why it matters"

General policy statement

The Regulatory Standards Bill aims to reduce the amount of unnecessary and poor-quality regulation by increasing transparency and making it clearer where legislation does not meet standards. It intends to bring the same discipline to regulatory management that New Zealand has for fiscal management.

The Bill aims to—

  • promote the accountability of the Executive to Parliament for developing high-quality legislation and exercising stewardship over regulatory systems; and

  • support Parliament’s ability to scrutinise Bills; and

  • support Parliament in overseeing and controlling the use of delegated powers to make legislation.

The Regulatory Standards Bill will aim to achieve its purposes by—

  • providing a benchmark for good legislation through a set of principles of responsible regulation (principles); and

  • providing for the transparent assessment of the consistency of proposed and existing legislation with the principles (consistency accountability statements); and

  • establishing a Regulatory Standards Board to independently consider the consistency of proposed and existing legislation in response to stakeholder concerns, Minister for Regulation direction, or on its own accord; and

  • strengthening regulatory quality by supporting the Ministry for Regulation in its regulatory oversight role.

The Bill establishes a benchmark for good legislation by introducing a set of principles of responsible regulation in primary legislation, focused on the effect of legislation on—

  • existing interests and liberties, including the rule of law, liberties, taking of property, taxes, fees, and levies, and the role of courts; and

  • good law-making processes, including consultation, options analysis, and cost-benefit analysis.

The Bill requires responsible Ministers, administering agencies, and other makers of legislation to assess the consistency of proposed and existing legislation (both primary and secondary) against these principles. Where inconsistency is identified, the Bill requires a statement from the responsible Minister (or maker of secondary legislation where not a Minister) to briefly explain the reasons.

Ministers, as well as makers of secondary legislation, must publish or present to the House of Representatives the results of those assessments and explanations. Some primary and secondary legislation is excluded or exempted from these requirements.

The Bill also establishes a Regulatory Standards Board, with members to be appointed by the Minister responsible for this Bill (the Minister for Regulation), to independently assess consistency of legislation, helping incentivise Ministers and agencies to complete robust consistency accountability statements. The board can carry out inquiries following a complaint, at the direction of the Minister, or on its own accord into whether legislation is inconsistent with the principles. Any recommendations it makes are non-binding. The board will only have a role in relation to legislation that is subject to consistency assessment requirements, and could investigate consistency with the principles in 2 broad ways as follows:

  • it could look at consistency accountability statements of Bills as introduced into the House of Representatives, and provide a report to a select committee on its findings:

  • it could inquire into whether existing legislation is consistent with the principles, and report to the Minister for Regulation and responsible Minister on its findings.

Finally, the Bill strengthens regulatory quality by supporting the Ministry for Regulation in its regulatory oversight role, including by requiring the Ministry to report on the overall state of the regulatory management system. It also strengthens regulatory stewardship expectations for agencies and information-gathering powers for the Ministry to support the efficient and effective conduct of regulatory reviews.

Departmental disclosure statement

The Ministry for Regulation is required to prepare a disclosure statement to assist with the scrutiny of this Bill. The disclosure statement provides access to information about the policy development of the Bill and identifies any significant or unusual legislative features of the Bill.

A copy of the statement can be found at http://legislation.govt.nz/disclosure.aspx?type=bill&subtype=government&year=2025&no=155

Regulatory impact statement

The Ministry for Regulation produced a regulatory impact statement on 22 April 2025 to help inform the main policy decisions taken by the Government relating to the contents of this Bill.

A copy of this regulatory impact statement can be found at—

Clause by clause analysis

Clause 1 is the Title clause.

Clause 2 provides for—

  • subparts 2 to 6 of Part 2 to come into force on a date or dates set by Order in Council (on or before 1 July 2026):

  • the rest of the Bill to come into force on 1 January 2026.

The deferred commencement of subparts 2 to 6 of Part 2 allows time to issue—

  • notices that specify Bills and secondary legislation that are not required to be reviewed under this Bill (see clauses 10 and 14); and

  • guidance under clause 27.

1Preliminary provisions

Clause 3 sets out the purposes of the Bill. The purposes are to—

  • promote the accountability of the Executive to Parliament for developing high-quality legislation and exercising stewardship over regulatory systems; and

  • support Parliament’s ability to scrutinise Bills; and

  • support Parliament in overseeing and controlling the use of delegated powers to make legislation.

The clause provides that the purposes are given effect to only in certain specified ways.

Clause 4 sets out an overview of the Bill.

Clause 5 defines various terms used in the Bill. It includes a definition of consistency accountability statement (a CAS). This is a statement from the chief executive of a responsible agency for legislation. The statement must—

  • confirm that the agency has reviewed the legislation for consistency with the principles of responsible legislation; and

  • summarise any inconsistency with the principles that is identified in the review.

The definition of principles of responsible legislation is set out in clause 8.

Clause 6 provides for transitional, savings, and related provisions set out in Schedule 1.

Clause 7 provides that the Bill binds the Crown.

2Principles of responsible regulation and regulatory stewardship

Clause 21 requires a responsible agency to prepare a CAS after a review of an Act.

The responsible Minister must present to the House of Representatives—

  • the CAS; and

  • a statement from the Minister that briefly explains the Government’s reasons for any inconsistency with the principles that is identified in the CAS and that sets out any proposed actions to remedy the inconsistency.

Clause 22 requires a responsible agency to publish on an internet site after a review of secondary legislation—

  • a CAS; and

  • a statement from the maker that briefly explains the maker’s reasons for any inconsistency with the principles that is identified in the CAS and that sets out any proposed actions to remedy the inconsistency.

3Regulatory reviews and information-gathering powers

Clause 41 requires reports on regulatory reviews carried out by the regulatory standards Ministry to be presented to the House of Representatives together with a Government response.

Clause 42 gives the chief executive of the regulatory standards Ministry a power to require a public service agency to supply any information that is necessary or desirable to enable the preparation of a briefing on the state of the regulatory management system under clause 16.

Clauses 43 to 47 give the chief executive of the regulatory standards Ministry a power to require various agencies or persons to supply any information that is necessary or desirable to enable the Ministry to carry out a regulatory review.

The agencies or persons that may be required to supply information include public service agencies, administering agencies or makers of secondary legislation, an agency or a person that performs a statutory function, and a contractor that supports or facilitates the performance of a statutory function.