More News

The stock of laws has been growing steadily over time in countries as a result of governments responding to new and emerging challenges. Yet these and other new laws do not always fit well with existing regulatory frameworks, especially as economies and countries are becoming ever-increasingly more interconnected. The OECD Best Practice Principles for Reviewing the Stock of Regulation offers a practical and flexible framework for countries to follow when reviewing laws. The principles provide assistance to countries in establishing their ex post evaluation regimes, whilst also providing practical guidance about relevant methodologies to adopt. This report is part of a series on 'best practice principles' produced under the auspices of the OECD Regulatory Policy Committee. As with other reports in the series, it extends and elaborates on principles highlighted in the 2012 Recommendation of the Council on Regulatory Policy and Governance.

The pace and scope of emerging technologies are creating a sea change for governments and for regulators. They challenge economic regulation by blurring the traditional definition of markets, for example, and by transcending administrative boundaries domestically and internationally. At the same time, the digital transformation is an excellent opportunity for regulators themselves to harness the power of data and digital tools to improve regulation and its delivery. Seizing this opportunity will require fit-for-purpose regulatory frameworks and governance arrangements. This report brings together case studies submitted by members of the OECD Network of Economic Regulators that highlight how regulators have analysed and tackled these issues. The case studies span nine countries and a wide range of sectors (communication, transport, energy, environmental protection) and provide concrete examples of how regulators are responding to innovation in the sectors that they oversee.

Slovakia has introduced important reforms to strengthen its regulatory policy framework, but certain challenges remain. This report assesses the country’s regulatory management capacity by taking stock of regulatory policies, institutions and tools, including administrative simplification policies, ex ante and ex post evaluation of regulations, stakeholder engagement practices, multi-level regulatory governance arrangements and innovative approaches to regulation. The review describes trends and recent developments, identifies gaps in relation to good practices and offers policy recommendations based on best international practices to strengthen the government’s capacity to manage regulatory policy. Improving the entire regulatory policy cycle will ensure that regulations are built on a foundation of solid evidence and public participation and are designed to improve the security, health and well-being of citizens at a reasonable cost.

The report presents an in-depth analysis of various policies that aim to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions of urban transport. Decarbonising transport lies at the core of efforts to mitigate climate change and has close links to urban sustainability and housing affordability. The report identifies the drivers of rising emissions in the urban transport sector and offers pathways to reduce them through a combination of transport and land use policies. The analysis yields a holistic welfare evaluation of these policies, assessing them according to their environmental effectiveness, their economic efficiency and their impact on fiscal balance and housing affordability. The report concludes that significant reductions in emissions from urban transport can be achieved through a careful alignment of transport policies designed to promote the use of public transit and electric vehicles, and land use policies, which foster a more compact urban form. The study is based on the case of Auckland, New Zealand but the lessons drawn are relevant for institutions and governments working on issues relating to urban sustainability, transport, housing and climate change mitigation.

Regulations are indispensable for the proper functioning of society and markets. Technical regulations, referred to as NOMs in Mexico, set specific safety and quality requirements for products across sectors. Implementing Technical Regulations in Mexico provides the first assessment of the challenges facing regulatory delivery of technical regulations carried out under the aegis of the OECD Regulatory Policy Committee. This report analyses the delivery of Mexican NOMs, focusing on policies and practices around conformity assessment and regulatory inspections. Based on an analysis of NOMs’ framework and implementation policies and practices, the review identifies key areas for improvement and provides recommendations for Mexico to develop a whole-of-government and systemic approach to regulatory delivery of technical regulations.

Environmental regulators strive to protect the environment and public health from pollution from economic activity. This report uses the OECD Performance Assessment Framework for Economic Regulators (PAFER) to assess both the internal and external governance of Ireland’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). It looks at the EPA’s role and objectives, its financial and human resources, processes for internal management and decision making, and systems for performance assessment. The review acknowledges the EPA’s achievements and good practices, analyses the key drivers of its performance, and identifies a number of challenges and opportunities for improvement to help the regulator prepare for the future.