Istanbul, 21-22 June 2010

This workshop took place in Istanbul and was hosted by the Turkish Prime Minister’s Office. The aim of this workshop on Measuring Regulatory Performance through the Use of Perception Surveys was to explore how countries can integrate two key concepts of regulatory reform policy:

1. a user-centered attitude towards businesses and citizens and
2. the need to incorporate evaluation into the regulatory reform policy cycle.

 Experts and delegates addressed strategic and methodological challenges with evaluating the performance of regulatory reform programmes, and highlighted the complexity involved in designing survey instruments and interpreting the results of evaluation tools.

 

Access:

• Full agenda 
• List of participants 
• Measuring Regulatory Performance: A Practitioner's Guide to Perception Surveys

 

This meeting was part of an annual series of expert meetings on Measuring Regulatory Performance. Other meetings have focussed on assessing the implementation of the 2012 Recommendation (Stockholm 2013) on overcoming challenges to measuring and reducing compliance costs (Berlin 2012), on developing a framework for measuring regulatory performance (Madrid 2011), and on Indicators of Regulatory Management Systems (London 2009).

 

Programme - Monday 21 June 2010

 

Keynote speech

• Celal Mert Aslan, Head of Administrative Development Division in the Prime Ministry of Turkey and Mr. Salih Arikan, Expert, DG for Development and Publication of Legislation and Publication

 

Introductory session: An overview of perception surveys

This session presented the findings of the OECD desktop research on perception surveys undertaken in OECD countries and set the context for the subsequent sessions, addressing methodological and political challenges.

• Christiane Arndt and Engin Kucet, Analysts, OECD

 

Session 1. Country experiences

Many countries use perception surveys to assess the success of regulatory reform programmes. In this session, four OECD countries shared insights on their survey design, methodology, findings and lessons learnt with the audience.

• Young Sang Kwon, Director of  Regulatory Reform Office, PM’s Office and Shin Kim, Director, Korea Institute of Public Administration, Korea
• Benoit Turcotte, Director, Centre of Regulatory Expertise, Canada
• Johan Steyaert, Managing Partner, INDIGOV, Belgium
• Jens Hedström, President, Board of Swedish Industry and Commerce for Better Regulation (NNR), Sweden
• Anders Gunnarsson, Head of Section, Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth, Sweden

 

Session 2. Interpretation of survey results

Many factors shape perception and survey results are therefore complex to interpret. A number of tools and studies reveal the drivers behind perceptions and help to interpret survey results accordingly.

• Hazel Russo, Assistant Director, Regulatory Innovation Directorate, Better Regulation Executive, United Kingdom
• Herman Schippers, Senior Policy Advisor, Ministry of Finance, Netherlands
• Jørgen Wissing Jensen, Chief Advisor, Ministry of Economic and Business Affairs, Denmark

 

Session 3. Survey design and methodology

Survey design and methodology heavily influence the results of perception studies. In this session, experts on survey methodology gave guidance on how to design a good survey.

• Steven Van de Walle, Associate Professor, Erasmus University Rotterdam,  Netherlands
• Gideon Skinner, Research Director, Ipsos MORI  Social Research Institute, United Kingdom

 

Programme - Tuesday 22 June 2010

Session 4. Political impact of surveys

Many perception surveys are designed to evaluate regulatory policies. An expert panel discussed how the results of perception surveys should and actually do influence regulatory policies.

• Gregory Bounds, Analyst, OECD
• Dominique de Vos, Deputy Director, Agency for Administrative Simplification, Belgium
• Korkmaz Ilkorur, Chairman, Business and Industry Advisory Committee (BIAC)
• Hazel Russo, Assistant Director, Regulatory Innovation Directorate, Better Regulation Executive, United Kingdom

 

Session 5. Perception surveys and communication

The communication of regulatory reform influences perceptions and perception surveys may in turn reveal that stakeholders are not aware of changes in the regulatory policy. Communication experts discussed how to communicate with stakeholders, to inform them about reforms and to better understand and address their concerns.

• Rachel Atkinson, Stakeholder Engagement Manager, Department for Business, Better Regulation Executive, United Kingdom
• Daphne Van der Zwet, Senior Policy Advisor, Ministry of Finance, Netherlands
• Jørgen Wissing Jensen, Chief Advisor, Ministry of Economic and Business Affairs, Denmark

 

Session 6. Regulatory performance indicators

As OECD countries continuously strive to improve the quality of their regulations, significant resources have been invested in regulatory policies and reform. In line with the rise in resources allocated, there is an increasing pressure for more accountability and use of performance information to demonstrate the effectiveness of regulatory programmes. Delegates have asked the Secretariat to undertake work on regulatory performance indicators in 2011-12 as part of the Regulatory Policy Committee Programme of Work. The work on perception surveys is a first step in this direction. The field of performance management and measurement is large and complex. 

 

This session explored areas in which countries would like to share experience and identify good practices on the design and use of regulatory performance indicators. 

• Christiane Arndt and Gregory Bounds, Analysts, OECD
• Benoit Turcotte, Director, Centre of Regulatory Expertise, Canada
• Carlo Thomsen, Acting Deputy Director General, Ministry of Government Administration and Reform,  Norway

 

Read more about:

• Events on measuring regulatory performance