| Popis: |
The Dutch Inspectorate of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment has developed a method, the so-called "compliance-strategy", to determine the risks of non-compliance with the law. On the basis of these risks the Inspectorate allocates extra time for law enforcement on regulations leading to high levels of risk and non-compliance. The National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) has found the method suitable for this purpose. RIVM also recommends several improvements to enhance convenience and transparency, and to make the method better accessible to policy makers and the public. One of these is defining the risks using a method based on agreements on how to assess risk from the estimated effects and chances of occurrence. Experts at the Institute have applied the same method to estimate the risks associated with the legislation. These risks are estimated lower by RIVM than by the Inspectorate. In cases where risk is the product of effect and the chance of occurrence, RIVM experts estimate lower chances of occurrence at the same level of effects. Upon their review of the compliance strategy, local authorities and other inspectorates have recommended explicit marking of administrative priorities and concretizing definitions; for example, what is considered a small chance of occurrence (once a year or once in a hundred years)? RIVM also advises checking on costs in cases of non-compliance applied to the laws and regulations originating in European legislation aimed at economic development of a region. Non-compliance may lead to high costs or to high losses due to underdevelopment. Some of these laws and regulations are classified as low risk in terms of public health and sustainable development. In cases where high costs seem probable, a separate approach to the legislation in the annual working programmes may be necessary. |
