The implementation and impacts of legislation are monitored since entry into force. The aim of monitoring is to evaluate the effectiveness of the legislation and any needs for its amendment. In the longer term, the data accumulated as part of the monitoring process serves as a basis for future legislative reform undertakings.
Legislation is monitored by the drafting ministry. The monitoring approach, laying out the areas of emphasis and required resources, is designed during preparation and briefly described in the rationale of the Government bill. Proper advance planning of the monitoring approach also helps determine the manners in which the impacts of the legislation are to be perceived in practice.
Monitoring tools include:
- studies and reports,
- statistics,
- court decisions,
- decisions and policies of administrative authorities,
- consultations and discussions, and
- surveys and other means of gathering feedback.
Monitoring of the implementation and impacts of legislation may be deemed to be adequate when it satisfies the following requirements:
- systematic, timely and sufficiently comprehensive approach
- findings compared to the objectives of the legislation and to the impacts envisioned during preparation, and
- tools, methods and findings recorded in a manner allowing easy future reference.