Czech Republic
Overview and recent developments
The Czech Republic has a well-developed regulatory impact assessment process including mechanisms for quality control through the RIA Board operating at arm’s length from the government. All draft primary and secondary legislation prepared by the executive has to be accompanied by a basic impact assessment; a full RIA has to be carried out for those drafts with new and significant impacts. The quality of RIA could be improved especially in terms of quantifications of impacts. RIA is not obligatory for legislative initiatives of the MPs, which represent about 40 % of laws.
All legislative drafts submitted to the government are published on a government portal accessible by the general public. It is obligatory to conduct consultations within the RIA process and summarise their outcomes in RIA Reports. There are, however, no compulsory rules specifying the length or form of such consultations. The Czech Republic should standardise the public consultation process and stimulate stakeholders including the general public to contribute to consultations.
The Czech Republic was among the first to launch a programme on reducing administrative burdens. Cutting red tape is still a priority for the government, however, contrary to many other countries, the focus has not yet been widened to other regulatory costs. Evaluation of the performance of existing regulations takes place usually on an ad hoc basis and is used rather rarely. The Czech Republic plans to introduce more systematic ex post reviews of existing regulations.
The Government Legislative Council is an advisory body to the Government overseeing the quality of draft legislation before it is presented to the Government. One of its working commissions, the RIA Board, evaluates quality of RIAs and adherence to the procedures as defined in the mandatory RIA Guidelines, provides assistance to drafting authorities if requested, and provides opinions on whether draft legislation should undergo a full RIA. The Government Legislation Department of the Office of the Government is responsible for monitoring legal quality of draft legislation as part of the interministerial comments procedure and when draft legislation is submitted to the Government Legislative Council and its working commissions. The RIA Department of the Office of the Government coordinates the RIA process within central government, provides methodological assistance and issues guidance materials for the RIA process. Compatibility with EU law is overseen by the Department for Compatibility of the Office of the Government.
Notes: The more regulatory practices as advocated in the OECD Recommendation on Regulatory Policy and Governance a country has implemented, the higher its iREG score. The indicators on stakeholder engagement and RIA for primary laws only cover those initiated by the executive (59% of all primary laws in the Czech Republic).
Source: Indicators of Regulatory Policy and Governance Surveys 2014 and 2017, http://oe.cd/ireg.