Newly established Ministry for Regulation
As part of the National and ACT Party Coalition Agreement, the Government has followed through on its commitment to lift the quality of New Zealand's regulatory systems by creating a new Ministerial portfolio for Regulation and establishing the Ministry for Regulation (Ministry).
The new Ministry will have two key functions:
- To evaluate any new regulatory proposals by Government and make recommendations on whether a bill should be passed.
- To conduct a review of existing regulations in specific sectors, identifying where these regulations are superfluous or could be improved, and preparing policy reform to address these issues.
Announcement of first sector review
Earlier this week, the Minister for Regulation, Hon David Seymour (Minister), announced the Terms of Reference for the Ministry's first sector review into early childhood education (ECE). The review will assess whether the current set of regulations are achieving the right outcomes for the ECE sector. All licenced or certified ECE services (including playgroups) are in scope of the review.
The Ministry's review will largely take a "principles-based" approach to assess regulatory systems based on the standards outlined in the Government Expectations for Good Regulatory Practice, the Regulatory Standards Bill and OECD guidance on good practice for reviewing regulations.
The review will take approximately six months and will be led by the Ministry and supported by employees from other relevant agencies, including the Ministry of Education and the Education Review Office.
Scope of the review
The review will cover any regulatory system affecting the ECE sector, including primary and secondary legislation and other rules or conditions that apply to ECE providers. This includes, but is not limited to areas of education, health, safety, child protection, food safety, buildings, and workplaces as they relate to the ECE sector.
The high-level questions the review will seek to answer include:
- What problems are the regulations seeking to address?
- Is regulation the best way to address these problems?
- What are the costs and benefits of the regulations? Specifically, are the benefits reasonable, affordable, and proportionate to the costs?
- Are the current regulations achieving their intended purpose?
The Ministry will not be considering funding levels, however, the Minister has indicated that funding will be reviewed separately in the future. Curriculum content and individual complaints about ECE service providers or their regulators are also outside the scope of the review.
Next steps
The Ministry is expected to publish its Draft Report on the review in September and has committed to engaging with those impacted by, and subject to, the ECE regulatory systems in the upcoming months.
A Final Report will then be provided to the Minister, closely followed by a Cabinet paper seeking decisions on the recommendations and next steps in the final months of the year.
The other agencies involved in the review will then take the lead on implementing the recommendations as the changes are expected to be carried out within various timeframes, and likely to continue after the review has concluded.