Improving Regulatory Effectiveness

As part of the recommendations made in the CNRA report on Future Nuclear Regulatory Challenges, the issue of regulatory effectiveness was considered of high importance. As a result of this report, a CNRA special issues meeting on Developing and Measuring Regulatory Effectiveness was held in June 1999. Several specific aspects were considered such as: how regulatory effectiveness could be judged, how regulatory bodies justified their existence and resources to governmental authorities, how industry perceived the effectiveness of regulatory bodies, public perception of regulatory effectiveness, etc.

The CNRA, as a follow-up to the special issues meeting, took several actions. It noted the issue of dialoguing with the public was being addressed through a CNRA workshop on Investing in Trust held from the 29th November to 1st December 2000. Regarding advancing the issue of regulatory effectiveness, it decided to hold several strategy meetings. The purpose of these meetings was to exchange information on ongoing national and international initiatives in this area and devise strategies to advance the discussion. Main issues to be included were internal indicators (measurement of regulatory effectiveness) and internal Q/A and quality management systems. During its meetings the task group reviewed and discussed many of the issues, exchanged information on current initiatives and developed several
recommendations as set out in this report.