Consistency assessments for new legislation

The Regulatory Standards Act 2025 (The Act) strengthens transparency and accountability for new legislation considered by Parliament. The Act sets requirements for consistency assessments of proposed legislation against a set of principles of responsible regulation.

The Act is supported by the Cabinet circular Expectations for Good Law-making [CO (26) 2]open_in_new which sets administrative requirements for agencies subject to Cabinet direction. Agencies not subject to Cabinet direction should consider the administrative requirements best practice.

For new legislation, the following documents are required:

• Consistency Accountability Statements (CASs). 
• Summaries of Underpinning Analysis. 
• Minister/maker Statements of Reasons. 

Together, these accountability documents provide information on whether proposed legislation is consistent or inconsistent with the principles of responsible regulation and explain the reasons where inconsistencies are identified.

Agencies must submit Consistency Accountability Statements, Summaries of Underpinning Analysis and Minister/maker Statements of Reasons with new legislation to provide accountability of the Executive to Parliament. They support the development of high-quality legislation by:

• Making it clear where proposed legislation is inconsistent with the principles of responsible regulation. 
• Requiring agencies to summarise their assessment against each principle of responsible regulation.
• Requiring the responsible Minister or maker of that legislation to explain the reasons for any inconsistencies.

The principles cover aspects of rule of law, liberties, taking of property, taxes, fees and levies, role of the courts and good law-making. 

Read the principles in full: Section 9 of the Regulatory Standards Actopen_in_new

Not all new legislation requires a CAS and supporting documents. 

See a list of these exclusions.

Some government amendments may be exempt from the requirement to complete a CAS and supporting documents.

See government amendment ex

In some cases, government amendments may not be able to meet the requirement to complete these documents before they are submitted for parliamentary scrutiny. In these circumstances, documents must be presented to the House of Representatives and published as soon as reasonably practicable after that scrutiny has occurred. 

Agencies must:

• Complete a CAS. (See template below) 
• Complete a Summary of Underpinning Analysis. This document accompanies the CAS to show the agency’s analysis. (See template below). Agencies not subject to Cabinet direction are not required to complete this document, but it is best practice to.
• Follow section 26 statutory guidance to complete the analysis. Agencies not subject to Cabinet direction are not required to use this, but it is best practice to. (See a link to the Statutory guidance below).

The chief executive of the agency developing the legislation is responsible for making the Consistency Accountability Statement under the Act. This responsibility may be delegated, and agencies should follow their internal quality assurance and sign-out process.

Agencies must:

• Provide the CAS and Summary of Underpinning Analysis to their Minister. 
• Share the documents during Ministerial consultation. The documents can be in draft at this stage. Note: This does not apply if Ministerial consultation is not required.
• Provide the CAS, Summary of Underpinning Analysis and any Statement of Reasons (see below) to Cabinet’s Legislation Committee when seeking approval for the legislation to be introduced. Note: If the legislation is not being approved through Cabinet processes, this requirement does not apply.
• All documents must be published on the agency’s website. See website publication requirements in following section Note: For agencies not subject to Cabinet direction, the Cabinet circular acts as best practice.
• For legislation that will be published by Parliamentary Counsel Office, provide all document links (including any Statement of Reasons (see below) to Parliamentary Counsel Office so that they can be included in the legislation’s explanatory note. If legislation is being published by the responsible agency, the responsible agency must make sure all documents are linked from the explanatory note.

Statement of Reasons

Ministers or makers of legislation must:

• Make a Statement of Reasons. See Statement of Reasons template below (This template is optional) 
• Provide the Statement of Reasons to Cabinet’s Legislation Committee when seeking approval to introduce the legislation.
• Provide the Statement of Reasons to your agency for inclusion in the legislation’s explanatory note.

The following resources support agencies to meet CAS requirements.

Guidance

Statutory guidance issued by the Minister for Regulation and the Attorney-General covers the application of the principles of responsible regulation (Part One) and how to meet the statutory requirement to produce a CAS (Part Two).

See the Statutory guidance

Templates
These templates must be used for

• Consistency Accountability Statements
• Summary of Underpinning Analysis
• An optional Statement of Reasons template is also available to support Ministers and makers of legislation. 

Publication requirements

See technical guidance to support agencies to meet their obligations for publishing CASs, Summaries of Underpinning Analysis and Statements of Reasons. 

• Information on the Regulatory Standards Act 
• Consistency assessments for existing legislation (not yet published)

If you have questions about CASs or need support, contact the policy team at the Ministry for Regulation.

Email: RMS@regulation.govt.nz