CADS10 Castellano. 2006 - Generalitat de Catalunya

The location of the coordination, review and support unit varies in each case study
considered, but two general trends can be seen to emerge.
a) Central position within the government: This is the case of the United Kingdom
(Cabinet Office), Italy (Prime Minister’s Office) and Tuscany (Technical Programming
Committee).
b) Tangential position but in a ministry with political importance: The Netherlands
(Ministry of Economic Affairs), Scotland (Business and Industry).
The first situation offers better conditions for adopting a holistic government vision,
while the second confers a certain bias according to the objectives of the host
department or ministry. In this sense, in both Scotland and the Netherlands, the players
interviewed considered that RIA has a certain business focus (more explicit in
Scotland).
The number of employees of the central unit varies greatly from one territorial area
to another. The size of the British Regulatory Impact Unit (RIU) is notable in this regard.
However, this information is only relevant in relation to the production of RIAs in each
specific region. In the case of the United Kingdom and Scotland it can be seen that,
despite the smaller legislative output of the latter, it has fewer employees than its United
Kingdom counterpart. On the other hand, it should be considered that the staff of
the central units does not actually determine the degree of support for the assessor:
the government network that supports regulators in the United Kingdom, with a very
high degree of functional specialisation, is a key factor in the success of RIA in the
United Kingdom, which is also the case with the satellite units of the RIU (the
departmental impact units).
The openness of the regulatory process to the participation of non-government
players is another one of the key points in every RIA. Participation is channelled
through consultations in every case study, which are mandatory in the United
Kingdom and Scotland (it has been seen that, in addition to the multiple informal
consultations, a formal public consultation must necessarily precede the final RIA).
It is no wonder, therefore, that only the United Kingdom and Scotland have official
guides for the consultations. In the remaining cases, consultation is a part of the
standard RIA procedures and, both on the central Italian level and in Tuscany, they
are conceived as transversal processes throughout the entire assessment.
Finally, as regards the final communication of RIA results, which is essential for the
transparency of the process and government accountability, it should be stressed
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