Reports

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.

One-stop shops have emerged as a way for governments to provide better services and improve regulatory delivery to citizens and business. The OECD Best Practice Principles for Regulatory Policy: One-Stop Shops for Citizens and Business offer a set of practical considerations for designing, operating, and reviewing one-stop shops. The Principles are based on a series of case studies and cover a wide range of tools and institutional arrangements to help governments improve their one-stop shops. 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.

International regulatory co-operation (IRC) provides an opportunity for countries to consider the impacts of their regulations beyond their borders, to expand the evidence for decision-making, to learn from the experience of their peers and to develop concerted approaches to challenges that transcend borders. This review documents the context of IRC policies and practices in the United Kingdom. It covers both the UK’s unilateral efforts to embed international considerations in domestic rulemaking and its bilateral, regional and multilateral co-operative efforts on regulatory matters. In addition, the review provides a snapshot of IRC in practice in the United Kingdom with four case studies on financial services, nuclear energy, medical and healthcare products and product safety. At a time when IRC is an increasingly essential, yet largely untapped, tool for addressing transboundary policy challenges, this review offers valuable lessons to countries within the OECD and beyond.

To meet their policy objectives, regulations must be accompanied by a carefully designed and well-implemented enforcement strategy, including inspections. This report provides an assessment of the enforcement and inspections strategy in the environmental sector in Peru along with recommendations to strengthen this strategy. The report evaluates the policies and legal framework of the Environmental Evaluation and Enforcement Agency of Peru, as well as its practices and the resources employed in enforcement and inspections activities. It also offers policy options to improve performance. The benchmark for the comparative analysis is the OECD Regulatory Enforcement and Inspections Toolkit. Using a checklist of 12 criteria, this Toolkit provides a simple tool for assessing the inspection and enforcement system in a given jurisdiction, institution or structure.

This report uses systems thinking tools to address pervasive problems in Slovenia's procurement system that the government has struggled to remedy through traditional regulatory means. The report outlines how room for innovation can be created within highly regulated policy domains and how governments can systematically benefit from it. Systems thinking allows for a new understanding of the role of procurement. The report explores potential reforms that could be designed from the bottom-up, to address specific behavioural and structural barriers – such as public perception, risk aversion, accountability and control functions – that cannot be addressed using only a legalistic approach.

Behavioural insights (BI) has become widely used by public bodies around the world, mostly towards improving the way policies are implemented and influencing individual behaviour. As the field of BI evolves to tackle more complex policy issues, there is widespread perception that BI can and should go beyond the study of individual-level decision processes for higher impact. This report presents research on applying BI to changing the behaviour of organisations, with a focus on fostering elements of a safety culture in the energy sector. It presents comparative findings from experiments with energy regulators in Canada, Ireland, Mexico and Oman, as well as guidance for applying BI to safety culture going forward.

As 'market referees', regulators contribute to the delivery of essential public utilities. Their organisational culture, behaviour and governance are important factors in how they, and the sectors they oversee, perform. The report uses the OECD Performance Assessment Framework for Economic Regulators to assess both the internal and external governance of Peru's Transport Infrastructure Regulator (OSITRAN). The review discusses OSITRAN's good practices, analyses the key drivers of its performance, and proposes an integrated reform package to help the regulator prepare for the future.

When designing a policy, law, regulation or other type of 'rule', governments should always consider its likely effects. Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) provides crucial information to decision-makers on whether and how to regulate to achieve public policy goals. RIA examines the impacts and consequences of a range of alternative options. RIA also helps policy makers defend a decision not to intervene in markets where the costs of doing so outweigh the benefits. Regulatory Impact Assessment provides policy makers, civil servants and other public sector practitioners with a practical instrument for better designing and implementing RIA systems and strategies. The Principles cover a wide range of institutional organisations, tools and practices and present a list of critical steps as well as 'dos and don’ts' for developing RIA frameworks. This report is part of the series OECD Best Practice Principles for Regulatory Policy 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 effective control of animal diseases and zoonoses requires co-ordinated policy action among countries. The World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), an intergovernmental organisation, offers a comprehensive framework increasing transparency on animal disease status, strengthening national veterinary services, and facilitating safe international trade of live animals and animal products. To achieve these objectives, OIE Members adopt a number of voluntary normative instruments, commonly referred to as OIE’s international standards. While the OIE works to support its Members in implementation, Members continue to face challenges in the use of these standards. This OECD study provides a diagnostic of the current state of play of OIE standards and of the data collection mechanisms that are (or may be) used to gather information on how they are implemented domestically. Based on this diagnostic, the OECD provides recommendations to support the OIE in establishing an Observatory to enhance the use and effectiveness of its standards.