Regulatory stewardship

The Department of Internal Affairs administers a very wide range of Acts and Regulations, which are listed here. We are committed to maintaining and improving all the regulatory regimes for which we have responsibility, using a regulatory stewardship approach.

Regulatory stewardship is a system-based approach to the design and maintenance of regulatory systems. It treats each regulatory system as an asset, designed with long-term sustainability in mind, and like many assets, requiring regular assessment and maintenance to ensure that it remains fit for purpose. Taking a stewardship approach helps to mitigate the risk of regulatory failure. The approach also provides insight into how systems can be strengthened and made to work better.

Further information about the stewardship approach to regulatory systems can be found on The Treasury’s regulatory stewardship webpage.

At DIA we have a small, dedicated team (the Regulatory Assurance and Stewardship Unit, or RASU) that is tasked with supporting regulatory stewardship activity across DIA’s 20+ regulatory systems. RASU works with regulatory system leaders at DIA to highlight good practice and provide assurance about system performance. We also work with the growing network of stewardship staff in other agencies to share expertise and collaborate on cross-agency issues.

RASU uses a range of tools and approaches to support regulatory stewardship at DIA, including:

• carrying out assessments of regulatory systems;
• facilitating workshops on regulatory systems;
• providing in-house advice and expertise on regulatory topics; and
• promoting good system governance.

From 2023, we are prioritising the strengthening of regulatory governance, through topics including risk management, assurance, performance measurement and governance methods. A diagram of our current approach to regulatory assurance and stewardship can be downloaded here (PDF, 682KB).

More information about each of our regulatory systems can be found on DIA’s website.