ASSIGNMENT – 1

TOPIC: LEGISLATIVE IMPACT ASSESSMENT

Context:
The Chairman of the Rajya Sabha has advocated for a detailed Legislative Impact Assessment and has
called for informed law-making in the country by highlighting the social, economic, environmental,
and institutional impacts of legislative proposals that will aid in realizing the stated objectives of
various laws.

Background:
There is concern about the law-making process in India since it does not take unplanned occurrences
and their consequences into account.
• At the moment, India lacks any type of institutional system for researching the impact of legislation
on society.
• Countries such as Kenya and Finland have structures in place to examine regulatory and legislative
proposals as part of their legislative processes.
What exactly is a legislative impact assessment, and what are its goals?
• Legislative effect refers to how legislation affects society once it is enacted and implemented.
• Legislative impact assessment entails examining and researching the effects of any act or policy on
various areas of society after it is enacted.
• It is known as 'post-enactment evaluation,' and it is similar to an academic activity that may benefit
both the government and society as a whole.

What exactly is a Legislative Impact Assessment, and what are its goals?
• Legislative impact refers to how legislation affects society once it is enacted and implemented.
• Legislative impact assessment entails examining and researching the effects of any act or policy on
various areas of society after it is enacted.
• It is known as 'post-enactment evaluation,' and it is similar to an academic activity that may benefit
both the government and society as a whole.

Objectives of Legislative Impact Assessment:

• Compare it to available alternatives.
• Hold stakeholder meetings to assess the potential effect.
• The chosen option's cost-benefit analysis.
• Analysis of the favoured option's cost-benefit ratio.

What are some of your worries about the Indian legislative process?
• Laws are frequently passed with insufficient review and assessment.
• Rush to propose quick-fix answers to difficult situations without considering long-term
consequences; as a result, both legislators and citizens are sometimes caught off guard by unexpected
consequences.
• Laws frequently become bogged down in implementation concerns.

Why is a legislative impact assessment required?

• The law-making process in India has been criticized because there is insufficient awareness of how
the new legislation would affect the economy, ecology, development, and society, either directly or
indirectly.
When it comes to law making, Parliament has a broader role. In both houses and committees, there is
close examination. However, we lack a mechanism for post-enactment. Parliament should consider
whether the declared or intended objectives of the legislation were met or not because the role of
parliament or legislative assembly does not cease after the law is approved and enforced.
There are certain processes that currently exist. For example, under land acquisition law, before the
property is bought, a good degree of social effect assessment is performed, and before large projects
are established, an environmental impact assessment is performed. As a result, a legislative effect
evaluation for new policies is also possible.
• Outside of financial laws, Indian legislation rarely contains sunset provisions,' which require the law
to be suspended after a certain date until it is re-enacted after review. Such an analysis would assess
the effectiveness of the legislation in relation to its objectives and, as a result, recommend the best
course of action.

• A post-enactment assessment is required in the case of a law relating to fields such as technology,
where societal developments occur at such a rapid rate that legislation is unable to keep up.

• As time passes, society evolves at a tremendous rate. Reviewing policies and actions after they are
enacted becomes critical to the country's prosperity.

What are some of the concerns with implementing legislative impact assessment in India?

• Adopting a legislative impact assessment would be a difficult task. Governments may be questioned
as to why they enacted policies that were outmoded in a matter of years.

• It is unclear if the standing committees will be empowered to proceed with the post-legislative
review, or whether a clause will be included somewhere in the legislation itself for its examination.

• It has not been decided whether this job will be assigned to an independent agency outside of
parliament or whether certain agencies will be established inside the scope of government.
• The concept of Legislative Impact Assessment appears to be gaining traction. It will allow us to
determine whether or not the law approved by the parliament has the desired influence on society.

• As the world's biggest and most vibrant democracy, it is past time for us to take a serious look at
such impact assessments in order to ensure more informed legislation. As time passes and society
changes, the laws that control society must develop as well, and efforts such as legislative impact
assessment will help them do so.

Preliminary Facts:

• The concept of legislative impact assessment (LIA) evolved from OECD nations' use of Regulatory
Impact Analysis (RIA).

• Regulatory Impact Analysis (RIA) is a systematic way of evaluating the positive and negative
consequences of new and current regulations, as well as non-regulatory alternatives.

The following are important aspects or sections of the LIA:

1. Identifying and stating the policy issue

2. Identifying viable legislative/policy alternatives

3. A comparison of alternative legislative/policy solutions with one another and with a "do nothing"
situation

4. Consultation with stakeholders

5. Choosing the best legislative/policy choice

6. Analysis of the Impact of the Preferred Option

7. Identification of necessary impact mitigating measures (if any)

8. The favoured option's cost-benefit analysis

9. Accountability

Evaluation Criteria:

The evaluation criteria for a legislative ex-post evaluation would include the progress made toward
achieving the objectives (main criterion), the side-effects of the law or regulation (positive or negative
side-effects), the enactment of the law or regulation, the practical application of the law and
regulation, consideration of whether the costs are proportionate to the results, and other criteria.

It is acknowledged that legislation can have both intentional and unexpected consequences.
Before performing an effect evaluation, it is necessary to consider the time required following the
legislation's enactment (for example, three to five years after the law's enactment).

Conclusion:

We have almost no evidence-based legislation. If we find ourselves changing the same laws over and
over, part of the reason is that we enacted terrible laws in the first place. There are several examples
of laws that fail to fulfil their goal. As a result, we must include in the legislative procedure a
framework for assessing the economic, social, environmental, and administrative impact of draught
legislation—beginning with problem identification, laying out policy options, impact assessment,
comparing alternatives based on their impact, and concluding with a scheduled post-enactment
appraisal.

Essentially, impact assessment not only aids in the development of better laws, but it also provides
more public accountability by requiring valid arguments for the implementation and failure of
legislation.

This would minimize the use of hastily prepared legislation for political benefit, making our claims of
being a participatory democracy less false.

Concerns about the government's internal capability are relevant in this regard. It may limit the scope
of detailed impact analysis and also point to the need for new institutions to be built for this purpose.

However, governmental capacity does not grow overnight. The goal should be to establish these
gradually.

It should be clear that the law and society are generally on the same page.