1. Commitment and buy-in for RIA
Governments should:
Spell out what governments consider as “good regulations”.
Introduce RIA as part of a comprehensive long-term plan to boost the quality of regulation.
Create an oversight unit for RIA with sufficient competences.
Create credible “internal and external constraints”, which guarantee that RIA will effectively be implemented.
Secure political backing of RIA.
Securing stakeholder support is essential.
Governments have to enable public control of the RIA process.
2. Governance of RIA – having the right set up or system design
RIA should be fully integrated with other regulatory management tools and should be implemented in the context of the Regulatory Governance Cycle.
RIA and its implementation should be adjusted to the legal and administrative system and culture of the country.
Governments need to decide whether to implement RIA at once or gradually.
Responsibilities for RIA programme elements have to be allocated carefully.
Efficient regulatory oversight is a crucial precondition for a successful RIA.
Resources invested in RIA must be carefully targeted.
Parliaments should be encouraged to set up their own procedures to guarantee the quality of legislation, including the quality of RIA.
3. Embedding RIA through strengthening capacity and accountability of the administration.
Adequate training must be provided to civil servants.
Governments should publish detailed guidance material.
There should be only limited exceptions to the general rule that RIA is required.
Accountability- and performance-oriented arrangements should be implemented.
4. Targeted and appropriate RIA methodology
The RIA methodology should be as simple and flexible as possible, while ensuring certain key features are covered.
RIA should not always be interpreted as requiring a full-fledged, quantitative cost-benefit analysis of legislation.
Sound strategies on collecting and accessing data must be developed.
RIA has to be undertaken at the inception stage of policy development.
No RIA can be successful without defining the policy context and objectives, in particular the systematic identification of the problem.
All plausible alternatives, including non-regulatory solutions must be taken into account.
It is essential to always identify all relevant direct and indirect costs as well as benefits.
Public consultations must be incorporated systematically in the RIA process.
Insights from behavioural economics should be considered, as appropriate.
The development of enforcement and compliance strategies should be part of every RIA.
RIA should be perceived as an iterative process.
Results of RIA should be well communicated.
5. Continuous monitoring, evaluation and improvement of RIA
It is important to validate the real impacts of adopted regulations after their implementation.
RIA systems should also have an in-built monitoring, evaluation and refinement mechanism in place.
A regular, comprehensive evaluation of the impact of RIA on the (perceived) quality of regulatory decisions is essential.
It is important to evaluate the impacts in cases where the original RIA document does not coincide with the final text of the proposal
Systematic evaluation of the performance of the regulatory oversight bodies is important.