Review of Industry-Led Regulation

Industry, government and consumers working together to find innovative solutions for enhancing consumer protection and reducing regulatory costs is the subject of a review of industry-led regulation commenced by the Ministry of Consumer Affairs.

The purpose of the review is to assist industry, consumers and government in developing, operating and evaluating industry-led regulatory schemes, such as voluntary codes of conduct and consumer dispute resolution schemes.

This review will consider whether industry-led schemes are effective in promoting an environment in which consumers transact with confidence, and to clarify the circumstances in which such schemes work best.

This review builds on previous work undertaken by the Ministry on self regulation (including the Ministry's publication Codes of Practice – Guidelines for Developing a Code of Practice), as well as examining other material from New Zealand and overseas.

The review is also part of a wider consideration of the mix of approaches to redress and enforcement that will best contribute to the Ministry's outcome of consumers transacting with confidence.

The Ministry has released a discussion paper outlining a proposed framework for evaluating industry-led regulatory schemes. The framework has been developed by analysing the industry circumstances which have been identified overseas as being indicative of effective industry-led regulation.

The Ministry invited submissions from interested parties by 14 October 2005.

Documents

• Discussion Paper  (July 2005)
• Media Statement: Effective Industry-Led Regulation - Media Statement from Hon Judith Tizard, Minister of Consumer Affairs (28 July 2005)