Regulatory Impact Analysis (RIA)

When a Minister wants to create or change legislation, their agency must first provide Cabinet with an analysis of the likely impacts of the regulatory changes being proposed. This is known as Regulatory Impact Analysis (RIA). 

The level of analysis should be in proportion to the significance of the change.

The Ministry for Regulation provides RIA guidance and templates to help agencies ensure their regulatory proposals meet Cabinet requirements.

Why RIA matters

Completing regulatory impact analysis before taking a proposal to Cabinet ensures Ministers have information on

• the scope of the regulatory issue that’s being addressed, the rationale for government intervention, and the options for addressing it (including non-regulatory options)
• the costs and benefits of each option
• the views of those who have been consulted on the proposal
• how the regulatory changes could be implemented and monitored, and reviewed in the future.

Cabinet’s requirements for impact analysis are set out in full in Cabinet Office circular CO (26) 2: Expectations for Good Law-makingopen_in_new.

These requirements are designed to encourage systematic and evidence-informed policy development, which helps support high quality regulation. They also help ensure Cabinet can make well-informed decisions about the regulatory changes being proposed.

Agencies preparing a regulatory proposal for Cabinet must prepare a summary of the impact analysis (unless an exemption applies). 

The summary of the impact analysis should be provided in a Regulatory Analysis Summary (RAS) and follow the requirements in Expectations for Good Law-making [CO (26) 2]open_in_new. 

The RAS should provide the agency’s best advice based on the findings of their regulatory impact analysis and should be less than 20 pages in length.

If an exemption applies, agencies must record their exemption decision in RIA Online.

If the proposal is for the release of a discussion document, an interim RAS is required to accompany the Cabinet paper only if the discussion document contains a narrowed set of options. 

How this works in practice

When an agency is preparing a regulatory policy proposal for Cabinet, they must submit the details of the proposal to the Ministry of Regulation. This is done through the Ministry’s RIA Online platform. 

In RIA Online, agencies can access the appropriate templates to support their Cabinet process and record their exemption outcomes (if relevant).

For more information, including account setup, see Using RIA Online.

Already have a RIA Online login? Go to RIA Onlineopen_in_new.

Each RAS prepared as part of a regulatory proposal to Cabinet should be independently assessed before it’s submitted with a Cabinet paper. 

All RASs are quality assured against the same criteria:

1. Complete.
2. Convincing.
3. Consulted.
4. Clear and concise.

Once completed, submit the RAS document to Cabinet along with the Cabinet paper, and any other documents required, via CabNet.

See the Guidance Note on Quality Assurance in the Guidance, tools and templates section below. 

Once the proposal has been considered by Cabinet, RIA documents must be published on the websites of the authoring agency and the Ministry for Regulation. 

RASs should usually be published at the same time as Cabinet material is proactively released. This helps ensure an open and transparent regulatory process. 

To publish a RAS on the Ministry for Regulation’s website, submit a request through RIA Online

Find out more about RIA Online. 

More information on the timing and process for publishing see guidance provided in the section below.

Templates

• Regulatory Analysis Summary (RAS) template. Use this template to prepare a RAS. The template includes guidance which should be read alongside the guidance notes (see below).
• Stage 1 Cost Recovery Analysis Summary (CRAS 1) template (232 KB, Docx). This template is for proposals seeking policy agreement to recover costs. Note: The template will be updated again in 2026. Please check this page again to make sure you are using the latest version.

• Stage 2 Cost Recovery Analysis Summary (CRAS 2) template (238 KB, Docx)
  This template replaces the Stage 2 cost recovery impact analysis (CRIS 2) template. Note: Cost Recovery templates will be updated again in 2026. Please check this page to make sure you are using the latest version.

Guidance

Preparing a RAS - guidance 

• The Regulatory Analysis Summary Process. This guidance note explains the process for preparing a RAS, including how to use RIA Online, the exemption grounds and process, and how to use the RAS template. 
• Guidance Note: Best practice impact analysis. This Treasury‑authored guidance describes the key elements of the Impact Analysis Framework. These elements should be used when developing government policy initiatives that involve proposals to create, amend or repeal primary or secondary legislation (a government regulatory proposal).
• Guidance Note: Quality Assurance of Regulatory Analysis Summaries. This guidance note explains the quality assurance process for RASs. It is intended for RAS authors and people involved in quality assurance panels, including panel members and chairs.
• Guidance Note: Discussion Documents and the Regulatory Analysis Summary. This guidance note explains how to prepare discussion documents for regulatory proposals, including best‑practice consultation approaches and how to write effective discussion documents.
• Key changes to RIA (146 KB, Pdf). An overview of key changes to Cabinet’s impact analysis requirements from 1 July 2026, as outlined in the Cabinet Circular CO (26) 2: Expectations for Good Law-making.
• Common questions about RIA changes (140 KB, Pdf). Answers to questions about the changes to regulatory impact analysis that took effect on 1 July 2026.

Publication guidance

• Publication requirements for regulatory analysis documents. This guidance provides technical requirements for digital / web teams who are publishing RAS documents on their agency websites. 

Economic analysis

• Problem definition and options identification. This resource applies the concepts of market failure and government failure to decide whether government action is needed, and what form it should take.
• Cost-benefit analysis. This resource provides guidance on assessing the expected benefits and costs of policy options. 

RAS library

See all published RAS documents in our library. This library also includes Regulatory Impact Statements (RISs) which were published before 1 July 2026.

Regulatory Analysis Summaries library

If you need advice on meeting the requirements, contact us: RMS@regulation.govt.nz.

We can answer queries on impact analysis and provide advice on which templates to use for your submission.