Regulatory stewardship

Regulatory stewardship is the proactive governance, monitoring and care of regulatory systems. The concept recognises that we can’t take a ‘set and forget’ approach to regulatory systems but instead need to proactively steward regulatory systems to identify where they are no longer fit-for-purpose and ensure they are delivering best value for New Zealanders.

A regulatory system is a set of rules, organisations and their practices, designed to work together to shape how people behave and interact, in pursuit of a broad policy goal or outcome.

This page provides agencies with information on their regulatory stewardship responsibilities and how to meet them.

Public service chief executives are responsible for the stewardship of regulatory systems.

Regulatory systems stewardship is a statutory responsibility. Section 15 of the Regulatory Standards Act 2025 requires chief executives of public service agencies to proactively engage in stewardship of the regulatory systems that relate to the legislation they administer. This is complemented by section 12 of the Public Service Act 2020, where the stewardship of legislation administered by agencies is part of the public service principles.

Regulatory stewardship has been a government expectation for some time and is outlined in more detail in Part B of the Government Expectations for Good Regulatory Practice. These cover responsibilities for:

• monitoring, review and reporting on regulatory systems
• robust analysis and implementation support for any changes to regulatory systems
• good regulator practice.

For more information:

• Government Expectations for Good Regulatory Practice
• Starting out with regulatory stewardship: A resource

The Ministry for Regulation has a regulatory stewardship oversight role, including monitoring progress across government in implementing regulatory stewardship arrangements. It can also support agencies with their regulatory stewardship responsibilities.

The periodic review of legislation and regulatory settings is a core element of good regulatory stewardship practice.

Section 17 of the Regulatory Standards Act requires agencies to develop, publish and report against plans for regularly reviewing their legislation for consistency with the principles of responsible regulation set out in that Act.

Cabinet has set some requirements for how agencies should report to meet this and related review obligations in a way that also supports regulatory systems stewardship. 

The Ministry has also released non-statutory guidance that agencies can use to design, coordinate and oversee the development and publication of plans for the review of existing legislation.

This non-statutory guidance supplements Part Three of the statutory guidance issued by Ministers under section 26 of the Regulatory Standards Act. 

Agencies should report annually on their performance in carrying out their plans for reviews of existing legislation for consistency with the principles of responsible regulation.

More information:

Plans for reviews of existing legislation – Guidance for agencies

Part 4 of the Cabinet Office circular CO(26)2: Expectations for Good Law-making open_in_new

Guidance issued under section 26 of the Regulatory Standards Act 2025

Consistency assessments for existing legislation

Together, the Regulatory Standards Act and the Cabinet circular: Expectations for Good law-making set the requirements for agencies following a review of existing legislation against the principles. These include requirements to produce documents that promote transparency and accountability.

More information:

Preparing consistency accountability statements for existing legislation

The government expects major regulatory agencies with stewardship responsibilities to publish information on their websites about:

• the nature, scope and objectives of each regulatory system for which they have or share a stewardship responsibility.
• the performance of those regulatory systems, including any recent reviews or assessments of aspects of system performance
• current plans for legislative or operational improvements to those regulatory systems.

Consistent with this, and to meet certain trade agreement obligations on public consultation and advance notice, Cabinet has agreed that certain major regulatory agencies will prepare and publish regular advance regulatory plans for regulatory systems affected by our trade agreement obligations, giving notice of planned regulatory initiatives in those systems (see Part 2 of CO(26)2).

The Ministry has released guidance to support agencies to design, coordinate and oversee the provision of advance regulatory plans for those regulatory systems.

See Consultation, international obligations, and advance regulatory plans – Guidance for agencies

Agencies can also refer to the following resources to assist them with regulatory systems reporting:

• Starting out with regulatory stewardship: A resource. See Stewardship Topic 1, which contains some guidance on defining regulatory systems.
• Plans for reviews of existing legislation – Guidance for agencies

As part of good stewardship practice, agencies should be identifying and where possible progressing improvements to their regulatory systems. A key way to do this is through regulatory systems amendment bills (RSABs) which are omnibus bills used for the improvement, repair, and maintenance of legislation.

The Ministry has worked with regulatory agencies to develop guidance to promote and support the use of RSABs across government.

Find out more about regulatory systems amendment bills.

If you have questions about regulatory stewardship or need support to meet your stewardship responsibilities, contact the Ministry for Regulation. 

Email: stewardship@regulation.govt.nz