314Conditions to be satisfied before regulations made under section 313

1. Before recommending the making of regulations under section 313, the Minister must—

2. follow the process set out in section 70 as if the recommendation for regulations were for a proposed national direction; and
3. comply with subsection (2) or (3) as applicable.

4. For regulations recommended under section 313(2)(a), the Minister must ensure that the rates are set so that the levy does not exceed the anticipated costs of any of the following activities that have been included in a natural environment plan and are undertaken for the purposes set out in section 313(2)(a)—

5. restoring ecosystems:
6. reducing the environmental impact of the use of the resource:
7. providing solutions (including research and development) to—
   1. manage increased demand for the resource; and
   2. enable more efficient use of the resource.

8. For regulations recommended under section 313(2)(b), the Minister must, after considering information provided by local authorities or relevant central government agencies relating to the costs of the following activities, ensure the rate does not exceed the costs of those activities:

9. system performance monitoring and associated data collection:
10. environmental monitoring and associated data collection:
11. investigations whose costs are not covered by litigation costs:
12. public information, education, and advice:
13. development and review of national standards that are not voluntarily funded or directly cost recoverable:
14. research, including modelling and tool development, to support any of the activities in paragraphs (a) to (e):
15. enabling new allocation methods to be operationalised, including the activities in paragraphs (a) to (e) for that purpose:
16. administering this Act at the national and regional level, to the extent that costs for this activity are not recovered through other mechanisms under this Act.