Office of the Government of the Czech Republic Address: nbřež Edvarda Benee 4, 118 01 Praha 1 Tel: +420 224 002 578,

Office of the Government of the Czech RepublicAddress: nábřeží Edvarda Beneše 4, 118 01 Praha 1Tel: +420 224 002 578, e-mail: [email protected], [email protected]

Update on the recent developments in the IA quality control in the Czech Republic

SCM Steering Group meeting3 April 2012,

Nicosia, Cyprus

Aleš Pecka

mailto:[email protected]



Overview

AB measurement and state of play of the national programme

Changes in the process of RIA quality check Next steps of the RIA process

Unit for Coordination of RIA Process, Government Legislative Council Section http://ria.vlada.cz

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AB measurement

First AB baseline measurement took place in 2005 Completed by December 2005 Based on the results of measurement, the focus of the AB

programme focused on the regulation of 6 ministries, whose regulation represented up to 80% of the overall AB

Ministry of Industry and Trade, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Social Affairs, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Environment and Ministry of Agriculture


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Action Programme on AB reduction – state of play (1)

20% target reduction until 2010 approved in 2005 Updated and prolonged in 2010 to 25 % until 2012 By December 2011 the reduced AB corresponds to the

reduction by 16,38% as regards the baseline from 2005 (which corresponds to 118 abolished and 175 amended IOs )

The expected reduction to be achieved by the end 2012 should correspond to 22,60% reduction as to the baseline from 2005.





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Main problem: ownership of the AB programme within the state administration lost over years (also due to the narrower approach – e.g. 6 ministries etc.)

Simultaneously in 2010, new AB measurement methodology under development and being tested within a pilot phase since 2011

Not the measurement of the overall AB „2.0“, but focus on identification of time-consuming IOs





Programme carried out in cooperation of Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Czech Statistical Office

What is new?: Focus on identification of IOs in 12 key areas with the expected highest rate of AB reduction on businesses, e.g.:

entry into the business, commercial law, conditions of employment, taxes, registering property, consumer protection, environmental requirements, requirements for the entrepreneurs, the internal market, public procurement and statistics


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Some 1269 IOs identified in 12 key areas by June 2011 in cooepration with other ministries

585 IOs cat. B and 684 IOs cat. C Preliminary estimations, to be further verified in

inquiry with businesses as to their perceptions of these IOs as regards the time consumption for their fulfilmentI (panels, workshops etc.)




Next steps in AB programme

The overall volume of IOs will be undergoing the process of evaluation based on the combination of quantitative – SCM model - and qualitative indicators

This phase to be completed by mid-2013 AB methodology to be updated based on the results of

this pilot phase


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Changes in the RIA process (1)

June 2011: The agenda shifted from the Ministry of Interior under the competence of the Chair of Government Legislative Council (GLC)

(new unit established in the Office of the Government) New quality control body established: Regulatory

Impact Assessment Board (RIAB) – November 2011 New updated RIA methodology (RIA Guidelines)

approved in December 2011





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Changes in the RIA process (2) - highlights To each new or amended regulation a basic „Overview of

impacts“ (in the form of a template) must be submitted: In case of sizeable impacts of the proposed regulation, RIAB will ask for RIA elaboration

The new model decreased substantially a previous high number of exceptions from RIA elaboration:

i.e. newly obligatory to all so-called „substantial intents“ of laws (1st degree Government decision about the future content of newly intended regulation)

Without overview of impacts and statement of the RIAB the draft regulation cannot proceed further in the legislative process and no submission to the Government approval





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RIA Board (1) The Regulatory Impact Assessment Board (RIAB) has been

established as the quality control body on submitted RIA reports on November 2011

It was to replace the previous inter-departmental Committee on RIA consisting of representatives/experts of ministries

It is an advisory board to the Government Legislative Council (GLC)

15 independent members mostly from academia Chair: Prof.Michal Mejstřík, Vice-chair: Pavel Telička (Stoiber

group)





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RIA Board (2)

No limits of the mandate – it is based on a ongoing basis with regard to the role of the Government Legislative Council (GLC) as the permanent body

GLC – the main body for the quality control of the government draft legislation

The advantage of the chosen approach, the new board was anchored in the existing procedures and within the respected Government body




RIA Board (3)

GLC checks whether the draf laws are: In compliance with the Constitution and constitutional

laws, In conformity with EU legislation and Newly also in accordance with RIA principles of the

draft legislation (e.g. All aspects of RIA methodology covered and evidence based justification of the proposal included in RIA reports)


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RIA Board – competencies (1) 3 main competencies:

Assessing the quality of submitted RIA reports to draft legislation: its opinion becomes the part of the overall statement of the GLC to a concrete piece of legislation – ex ante type of control

Authorized to undertake consultation of aspects of RIA during the preparatory and drafting phase of RIA reports if requested by the drafting authority;

Based on evaluation of preliminary „overview of impacts“ (template), it issues its opinions as to which planned pieces of draft legislation should undergo a RIA process to be later approved in the Annual Legislative Plan by the Government.





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RIA Board – competencies (2) The RIAB considers all RIA reports to Government draft legislation

proposals approved in the Annual Legislative Plan with the obligation to undergo the RIA.

Additionally those draft laws which did not receive an exemption from RIA attributed by the Chair of the GLC based on a previous request and the overview of preliminary impacts submitted by the drafting authority.

It evaluates overall quality and adherence to the procedures as defined in the RIA Guidelines, e.g.:

the integrated approach to the impact assessment (i.e. evaluation of economic, social and environmental impacts at once)

Evaluation of administrative burdens imposed on businesses (a separate additional methodology in force since 2007)





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Aspects of quality check of RIA reports by RIAB

The opinion of RIAB is issued to the quality and objectivity of the findings from the RIA process as described by the drafting authority in the RIA report.

Generally, opinions are in principle following: Either the RIAB considers that the RIA meets the quality requirements

as defined in the RIA Guidelines and recommends the draft legislation for an approval or,

It finds the draft proposal as not yet eligible for a Government approval by identifying the list of weaknesses in the evaluation of impacts which should be removed before the Government deliberation on a proposal.

Exceptionally, a proposal may be identified as superfluous and creating the unnecessary regulatory burden - the GLC may then recommend to the Government to reject the whole proposal as such).





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Review of national implementation measures transposing EU law The RIAB also evaluates also all draft legislative proposals

transposing the EU legislation, if approved with the obligation to undergo the regulatory impact

assessment in the Annual Legislative Plan. The decision is based on preliminary evaluation of impacts to

each proposal submitted to the RIAB in which it considers a potential extent of a discretion allowed to national authorities especially by the EU Directives

The aim: to limit potential damages resulting from unnecessary over-implementation into the national laws (gold-plating).




Review of AB in the draft proposals – ex ante

Methodology for evaluation of newly introduced AB in force already since 2007

Focus of RIAB in the RIA reports: justification of new AB resulting from new requirements, administrative procedures etc.

Quantification required if data available, otherwise a qualitative description of proposed changes as to the current situation


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Future plans

A new supporting IT tools for RIA process for state administration in the specialised website

on-line tools (presentation of best practice, data, methodologies) and e-learning programme

Application of „One in – one out“ principle under consideration

Review of the RIA process to be completed in mid-2013, report to the government by September 2013


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THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION !


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Documents

Office of the Government of the Czech Republic Address: nbřež Edvarda Benee 4, 118 01 Praha 1 Tel: +420 224 002 578,