“Formal consultation should take place at a stage when there is scope to influence the policy outcome.”


Whenever a Regulatory Impact Analysis (RIA) is conducted to prepare a Regulatory Impact Statement (RIS), consultation must be an integral part of the process. Consultations should begin as early as possible in the RIA process. It will often be necessary to engage in an informal dialogue with stakeholders prior to a formal consultation to obtain initial evidence and to understand issues to be raised in the formal consultation.

At this early stage of impact assessment, a sample of key stakeholders and individuals who are knowledgeable in the issue of interest should be consulted to gather their inputs and to come up with regulatory and non-regulatory options. This stage is the preparation of the “Green” paper for the formal consultation in the preparation of the RIS. This stage may take as long as is feasible for the issue of concern until an adequate green paper is prepared for the formal consultation. The formal consultation will take 12 weeks but may take longer depending on the complexity of the issue and the number of stakeholders involved (refer to Surat Pekeliling Am Bilangan 2 Tahun 2012). Allowing at least 12 weeks will help enhance the quality of the responses. This is because many organisations will want to consult the people they represent or work with before drafting a response to the Government and doing so will take time. The process may be iterative until a satisfactory conclusion is reached based on the established evaluation criteria.

When planning a consultation exercise, it is important to take necessary steps to raise awareness of the exercise among those who are likely to be interested. In particular, departments should consider ways to publicise consultations at the time of, or before, the launch-date so that those consulted can take advantage of the full consultation period to prepare considered responses.