As 2024 draws to a close, it’s an apt time to reflect on the Ministry for Regulation’s inaugural year. 

The Ministry for Regulation was established on 1 March 2024, forming a key part of the coalition Government’s attack on red tape. This has been an important focus of the Government as a whole, with several other agencies and Ministers announcing similar red-tape cutting initiatives. For instance, in November 2024, the Government opened consultation on proposals to modernise New Zealand’s conservation management system, including reducing red tape for eco-tourism and business. 

In light of this larger plan, the scope of the Ministry’s powers and role as a central agency started off somewhat unclear. However, with two regulatory reviews well underway, and a third recently announced, we now have a better idea of what this new Ministry intends to do, and some indication of what is to come. 

What’s happened so far? 

Rocky start?

The Ministry has taken some time to find its feet. Its goal of leading the charge on making improvements to New Zealand’s regulatory systems has, at times, resulted in some ministerial scuffles between the Minister for Regulation, Hon David Seymour, and other portfolio-holders. You can read about these interesting developments in our previous article on the matter. While whether the Ministry will continue with its rocky stance or progress to a smooth sailing operation remains to be seen, it has nonetheless tasked itself with a busy workplan over the last nine months and moving into 2025. 

Undertaking regulatory reviews

A key part of the Ministry’s work is to perform ‘quality control’ on new and existing legislation and regulation in New Zealand, which it largely intends to do by reviewing current regulatory systems to ensure they support better and more productive outcomes for New Zealand businesses and individuals. 

Early Childhood Education Regulatory Review

Its first sector review commencing in June 2024 was into Early Childhood Education (ECE). Six months later and with less than two weeks to go until the end of the year, the Ministry is clearly determined to farewell 2024 with a bang - having delivered its first report on the ECE review on 18 December. 

The Ministry reported 30 findings from its review, culminating in the view that the current regulatory system aggravates ECE market failures. The findings range from the ECE regulatory system being out of date and lacking an effective compliance monitoring system, to there being an apparent overlapping of roles of the Ministry of Education and the Education Review Office leading to confusion, conflicts and inconsistency. To tackle these issues, the Ministry has made 15 recommendations centred around making system setting changes to modernise and improve regulations across licensing, compliance and workforce areas. For example, the Ministry has proposed that the Government revoke the Health (immunisation) Regulations 1995 relating to the requirement that ECE service providers must hold immunisation records on the basis that it is redundant and unnecessarily burdensome on ECE service providers.

The Minister has accepted all 15 of the recommendations and considers the review “represents a major shakeup of the sector’s outdated system”. A paper will be presented to Cabinet early in 2025 to action the recommendations.

Agricultural and Horticultural Products Regulatory Review

The Ministry subsequently turned its mind to Agricultural and Horticultural products, which commenced in August. The review is currently in its draft report stage, and the paper is set to go to Cabinet in February 2025. You can read about this review and its scope in our article here. 

Proposed Regulatory Standards Bill 

In November 2024, the Ministry opened consultation on a proposed Regulatory Standards Bill. It is suggested that the proposed Bill will draw from the 2009 Report of the Regulatory Responsibility Taskforce and the 2009 and 2021 Bills that subsequently arose. The Minister has personally acknowledged “those who have paved the way for regulatory reform in 2024” which has culminated in nearly 25 years of work. 

The Bill intends to set out a framework for the management and review of new and existing regulations and aims to ensure a consistent standard of regulation across government agencies. 

While the Bill has not yet been drafted, it intends to provide:

1. Principles of responsible regulation. The principles will generally relate to the design and content of legislation, standards of good law-making, and regulatory stewardship by agencies.
2. Mechanisms through which the Ministry can identify and reconcile inconsistencies between regulatory systems and the principles of responsible regulation. This will largely be achieved through the establishment of the Regulatory Standards Board, which will be responsible for making non-binding recommendations where inconsistencies are found. 
3. Strengthened powers for the Minister and the Ministry to supervise other agency’s regulatory regimes and reviews, such as by allowing the Minister to initiate reviews and set terms of reference and to compel information from agencies required for reporting purposes.

The consultation period for the proposed Bill closes on 13 January 2025. You can read more about it, and make a submission, on their website. One of our experts listed at the bottom of the page would be happy to assist you with preparing a submission. 

Public consultation 

The Minister and Ministry have been steadfast in their position that their strategic intentions and work plan are driven by public demand. In this regard, they have taken several steps to engage with the public. 

Most recently, to assist the Ministry’s understanding of existing regulation and people’s experiences with regulatory systems, they have opened the “red tape tipline”. The tipline is an online forum for the public to make submissions on regulations that affect them. The tipline opened on 19 November 2024 and over 300 people reported regulatory issues within the first week, largely in relation to building and construction or traffic management. The red tape tipline can be found on the Ministry’s engagement hub. 

What is to come? 

It is likely that 2025 will follow a similar trajectory as 2024, with more regulatory reviews, and the progression of the Regulatory Standards Bill through Parliament. 

More regulatory reviews

The Ministry has been clear that its reviews will focus on issues of national significance and will have system-level impacts, and the Minister himself hinted at possibly turning to the finance regulatory system or medical licensing system next when he appeared before the Finance and Expenditure Committee in June 2024. You can read more about the Minister’s initial aspirations for the Ministry in our article from July here. 

Despite this indication, on 12 December, the Ministry announced that its third review will be of the hairdressing and barbering industry. The review is expected to be short and sharp, completed by the first quarter of 2025. This choice perhaps reflects the Ministry’s endeavour to be guided by public opinion on what regulatory reviews it chooses to do. It also perhaps indicates that the Ministry’s laudable, but perhaps overly optimistic, 2024 workplan will creep into the first half of 2025.

You can read about the Ministry’s current reviews, and their ambitious scope, in our previous articles on the matter here and here.

Regulation-making process changes

On 16 December 2024, the Ministry announced a new circular update, Cabinet Office circular: CO (24) 7, aiming to streamline the process for the regulatory impact analysis requirements and improve regulatory oversight. 

Currently, regulatory impact analysis of regulations supports and informs the Government’s decisions on proposals for policy change. It is both a process and an analytical framework that encourages a systematic and evidence-informed approach to policy development. For the private sector, the regulatory impact analysis documents are a useful tool to explain the intention behind the proposed regulations, making it easier to understand how policy may affect their sector.

The new cabinet circular will have three key effects: 

1. Agencies must engage with the Ministry for Regulation as soon as possible after policy commences on an issue that may result in a regulatory proposal being recommended to Cabinet. The Ministry for Regulation will review information about problem definition and rationale for government intervention before deciding to engage. 
2. The Ministry for Regulation will provide quality assurance on agencies meeting their impact analysis requirements. The quality assurance will be published on the Ministry’s website, increasing accountability on agencies. These changes will take place from 1 January 2025.
3. It raises the threshold for regulatory change with limited impacts, therefore not requiring a regulatory impact analysis to be produced where regulations have minor impact.

Ultimately, these changes are likely to result in greater oversight of the making of regulations that affect people and provide more accountability for agencies undertaking regulatory reform. It should make it easier for the public to understand the reasons for regulatory change. However, only time will tell as to whether these changes will result in ‘cutting red tape’.

We will be watching to see how this cabinet circular is implemented in practice in the new year. 

New legislation 

With consultation on the Regulatory Standards Bill discussion document closing in January 2025, the Government will likely be busy working on drafting and finalising the Bill to be introduced in Parliament. The Ministry has indicated that its proposed time for the Bill’s introduction is in the first half of 2025, which will provide another important opportunity for public input. 

We expect to also see ongoing amendments to current regulatory systems through the introduction of regulatory systems amendments bills, which intend to resolve smaller issues within the legislation governing regulatory systems. For example, in December 2024 alone, three regulatory system amendment bills were introduced: 

1. Regulatory Systems (Courts) Amendment Bill
2. Regulatory Systems (Occupational Regulation) Amendment Bill
3. Regulatory Systems (Tribunals) Amendment Bill 

It is safe to say that as 2024 draws to a close and the Ministry for Regulation heads into its second year, we can expect to see it continue with its work-filled trajectory. We will continue to keenly watch this space and provide updates on key developments surfacing from the Ministry as they arise. 

Special thanks to Brooke Clifford and Alice Mander for their assistance in writing this article.