Publications & Documents

The precautionary principle has been an important aspect of regulatory delivery for nearly four decades. Now widely applied and with a global reach, the principle is often invoked whenever the scientific evidence surrounding the safety of a given technology is not conclusive. It is often applied where a safety risk is known to exist, but the probability and magnitude of harm are uncertain or unknown. The principle thus supports — and is an important element of — risk-based regulation. It is an important principle for the energy transition, in particular, though it is complex to apply in practice. The safety risk of technologies supporting the energy transition is immediate, which can lead regulators to operate and apply the principle over-cautiously — sometimes to the extent of complete inaction. This report examines how the precautionary principle can be used to support flexible decision making by helping regulators and operators manage risk through positive action.

Regulators act as 'market referees', balancing often competing interests of stakeholders, including governments, current and future actors in the markets, and consumers. At the same time, markets are changing at an unprecedented pace due to new technologies, the international drive toward carbon-neutral economies, shifts in consumer needs and preferences, and, more recently, the profound changes brought by the COVID-19 pandemic. Assessing the performance of economic regulators must therefore be a continuous effort. This progress review evaluates the changes put in place by Peru’s telecommunications regulator, OSIPTEL, since the previous OECD performance assessment review in 2018, in the interest of increasing the effectiveness of its regulatory activities and improving final outcomes for consumers and the economy.

The OECD Public Governance Review of the Czech Republic identifies priority governance areas for reform in the Czech Republic and offers recommendations to strengthen the effectiveness, agility and responsiveness of the country’s public sector. The review first provides a snapshot on the effectiveness of the public administration and its capacity to address contemporary governance challenges, such as digitalisation and climate change. It then analyses a number of critical and priority public governance areas including citizen engagement, centre-of-government-led co-ordination and strategic planning, evidence-informed policy making in the Czech public administration, public administration at the local and regional level, human resources management in the public administration, and digital government. It also includes a case study on governance arrangements and regulations during the COVID-19 pandemic. The review provides recommendations for the Czech public administration to help it implement its Public Administration Reform Strategy: Client-oriented Public Administration 2030 (PAR), achieve the objectives of the PAR, and, ultimately, realise its longer-term sustainable development vision and commitments.

Open banking allows users to access financial information and services through consent-based data portability. This paper brings together the views of private and public experts from a wide variety of countries to explore opportunities and challenges of open banking for financial regulation, privacy protection, and competition. It discusses the different approaches taken by jurisdictions across the globe, and the importance of regulation and standards. While open banking empowers users in sharing and re-using their data across digital services, online platforms, sectors and borders, uncertainty in the interactions with data protection and privacy regimes remains challenging. This paper informs OECD work to consider how cross-sectoral cooperation between financial, competition and data protection authorities could help further open banking.

Government information websites are an important tool for governments seeking to improve communications, ease administrative burdens and provide greater access to public services for citizens and businesses. Effective information websites, centred on users’ needs, can ensure a trustworthy information exchange between citizens and the public administration. This report looks at how developing a fit-for-purpose search function, using predictive text, machine learning techniques, and other functionalities, can contribute to effective information websites. It presents recommendations as well as guidelines for ensuring high-quality standards across government information websites, including upgrading them into transactional portals, where citizens may easily access public services and communicate with government agencies about their needs.

Like many other OECD countries, Greece has embarked on an ambitious digital transformation of its public sector to make it more effective, sustainable, proactive and people-centred. However, digital transformation projects present challenges in terms of governance, procurement, implementation and institutional capacities. This review explores how Greece could overcome these challenges to ensure that digital government investments address critical bottlenecks such as the procurement process and result in policy coherence, achieve value for money, and deliver intended outcomes. It also highlights the crucial role of whole-of-government co-ordination.