Consistency assessments for existing legislation

The Regulatory Standards Act 2025 (The Act) strengthens transparency and accountability for reviewing existing legislation against the 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 existing 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 existing legislation is consistent or inconsistent with the principles of responsible regulation and explain the reasons for any inconsistencies and any proposed actions to remedy them. 

Agencies must submit Consistency Accountability Statements, Summaries of Underpinning Analysis and Minister/maker Statements of Reasons when reviewing existing legislation under section 17 of the Act. These accountability documents support the transparency of existing legislation’s alignment with the principles of responsible regulation by:

• Making it clear where existing legislation is inconsistent with the principles of responsible regulation. 
• Requiring agencies to summarise their assessment against each principle of responsible regulation, as the principles relate to existing legislation
• Requiring the responsible Minister or maker of that legislation to explain why, and set out any proposed actions to remedy the 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. Some of the good law-making principles apply differently to existing legislation than for new legislation. 

See our Regulatory Stewardship page for more information

See section 9 of the Regulatory Standards Act open_in_newto read the principles in full.

See section 19 of the Regulatory Standards Actopen_in_new to see how some principles apply differently when assessing existing legislation.

Not all existing legislation needs to be reviewed against the principles of responsible regulation. That legislation does not require a CAS and other accountability documents. 

See a list of legislation excluded by the Act or by notice.

If not excluded by the Act or by notice, a CAS is required to be produced for existing secondary legislation only if:

• a CAS was prepared for it when it was made or amended, or 
• the secondary legislation is of a class specified in a notice (see section 18 of the Act).

Following a review of existing legislation against the principles, 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).

Agencies can complete a CAS for:

• individual Acts 
• parts of an Act (for instance, where an agency is responsible for only part of an Act, or in relation to a particularly long or complex Act)
• multiple pieces of existing legislation (for instance, where an agency is reviewing a regulatory system that the legislation is a part of, or where an agency is reviewing an Act and secondary legislation made under that Act). See Part Two of the statutory guidance for more information. 

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:

1. Provide the CAS and Summary of Underpinning Analysis (where applicable) to their Minister or maker as soon as possible following a review. 
2. For existing primary legislation, support the Minister or maker for the legislation in presenting the documents to the House of Representatives if needed.
3. 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 requirements are best practice.

Statement of Reasons

Ministers or makers of legislation must:

• Make a Statement of Reasons if an inconsistency has been identified. See Statement of Reasons template below. (This template is optional).
• For existing primary legislation, present the documents to the House of Representatives as soon as is reasonably practicable after receiving documents from the agency.
• Provide the Statement of Reasons to the agency to support publication of all documents.

The following resources support agencies to meet the requirements of the CAS regime:

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

See the Statutory guidance

Publication requirements

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

See the publication requirements

Templates
The following 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.

See the templates: 

• CAS template for existing legislation
• Summary of Underpinning Analysis template for existing legislation 
• Optional Minister/maker Statement of Reasons template for existing legislation 

• Information on the Regulatory Standards Act
• Regulatory stewardship overview
• Consistency assessments for new legislation

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

Email: RMS@regulation.govt.nz