Open Government Partnership New Zealand National Action Plan 2016-2018
Date: June to August 2017
Commitment 6 progress report: June to August 2017
Commitment 6: Improving access to legislation
Lead agency: Parliamentary Counsel office (PCO)
To improve access to legislation by publishing all secondary legislation, regardless of who drafts it, on the New Zealand Legislation (NZL) website. The result will be a single, comprehensive, official, public source of all New Zealand’s legislation.
What have we been doing?
- The Legislation Bill was introduced on 20 June 2017 and is waiting for its first reading (note that the first reading will not happen until a new Parliament is formed after the election).
- We have been focussing on completing the legal research to a point where the findings can be finalised with the agency key contacts.
- We have engaged with 23 of the 33 administering agencies to discuss the legal analysis of their empowering provisions – all agencies have shown a strong desire to ensure that a mutually agreed view is formed and have been very supportive.
- A drafting template has been finalised and has been trialled internally by PCO. We have identified a group of 10 agencies who have expressed a willingness to participate in a pilot of the drafting template. This will be done as a part of an holistic ‘joined-up’ approach to engagement with agencies that is being developed.
- We have had a major focus on Project and Change planning to ensure that we have a clear work programme to June 2018 with confirmed budget and resources.
Links
List of agencies that can create regulations
Access to Subordinate Legislation Project news
What’s next?
- Continue piloting the drafting template with agencies, which will help inform the final working template as well as provide an early view of any business impact on agencies.
- Commence quantitative (existing quantity, rate of production, etc) analysis of secondary legislation to inform the proposed service delivery model for delivery of future services.
- Commence research on end user needs in relation to finding secondary legislation to inform the development of IT systems.
- Decide the nature and timing of migrating existing secondary legislation to ensure that agencies have enough time to prepare for fulfilling their obligations under the new Legislation Bill when it becomes law.