CADS10 Castellano. 2006 - Generalitat de Catalunya

The criteria used in the assessment are very different from one case study to the next.
The most exhaustive method in this sense is the British method –also used in
Scotland–, which takes into account economic, social, environmental and institutional
(mainly related to enforcement) impacts. Through flexible use of its three tests, the
Netherlands takes into account economic, environmental and enforcement-related
impacts, also including some social impacts in its business effect test.
The most restricted assessment is the Italian, since it only considers economic,
social and administrative assessment criteria. The cost-benefit analysis requirement
is a key factor in this sense, since it leads to only tackling the impacts that can be
easily monetarised. The territorial areas that require a broader range of impacts to
be considered are more flexible as regards the analytical method they use, alternating
quantitative and qualitative data and, among the latter, data expressed in different
units of measurement (monetary or physical). Instead of trying to fit all the data into
a cost-benefit analysis –given the known difficulties in monetarising certain environmental
“assets”– unequal values are compared.
The assessment is completely decentralised in the Netherlands, the United Kingdom
and Scotland, where the actual officials of the ministries proposing the regulation are
in charge of drawing up the RIA. Decentralisation at the central Italian level can be
considered to be intermediate, since the second experimental phase provides for the
creation of RIA units in every department in order to perform on-site assessments 2 .
On the other hand, in Tuscany, the process is completely centralised: regulating
officials have no role in the process since a specialised group belonging to the
Technical Programming Committee –the Legislative Technical Unit (LTU)– is in charge
of drawing up the RIAs. Thus, in every case except in Tuscany, there is a clear
distribution of responsibilities between the ministries and a central review and quality
control body 3 . In Tuscany, the two functions of drawing up and reviewing the RIA,
are entrusted to the same task force (LTU), thus isolating the assessment from the
regulatory process in question and complicating any objective review of the RIAs.
2
It is not planned, therefore, for the actual regulators to draw up the RIAs. These departmental units are
very different to the British Departmental Regulatory Impact Units, since they are only in charge of advising
and supporting the regulators.
3
At the central Italian level there are plans to have one central unit and various departmental units.
282