In September 2017, the Italian government introduced a new set of procedures for regulatory impact assessment (RIA), ex post evaluation, stakeholder engagement and regulatory planning. Ministries have to prepare a simplified RIA, providing a first assessment of expected impacts and a justification for not conducting a full RIA for low impact proposals, which is reviewed by the Department of Legal and Legislative Affairs (DAGL) within the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, whose gatekeeping role has also been strengthened. Ministries are also required to publish twice a year a 6-month legislative programme, highlighting planned RIAs and consultations. The programmes are to be posted on the central government website and the website of individual ministries. New guidelines to support public consultation aimed at enhancing transparency and participation were introduced in 2017 and new guidance on RIA and ex post evaluation was introduced in February 2018. Ex post evaluations have become more commonplace across a wider range of policy areas since 2015.
The challenge ahead is to “connect the dots” to develop a culture of evidence-based user-centric policy making. For instance, ex post evaluations could be more systematically planned when preparing RIAs for major legislation and quality filters and advice could continue to be strengthened. Consultation could become more systematic and consistent across different ministries and used to understand citizens’ preferences, gather evidence on implementation options (early stage) and gaps (evaluation).
