Purpose
This report provides an overview of key information on Victorian regulators and includes high-level information for each participating regulator on their objectives, regulatory framework, and operational data. It is designed to help regulated parties (individuals and businesses), regulators and other government bodies understand the scope of Victorian regulators and the regulations they administer, and the role of specific regulators.
It is important to note that some regulators listed in this report undertake non-regulatory activities and for the purposes of this report, data about regulatory and other activities are not separated out. This is an important caveat to bear in mind when using this data. This is because some of Victoria’s regulators have additional functions, for example, WorkSafe, (which has responsibility for Worker’s Compensation arrangements as an insurer, as well as the regulation of occupational health and safety, and the storage and transport of dangerous goods) while others undertake only regulatory functions, for example, the Victorian Building Authority. Governance arrangements vary across regulators too: some regulators operate under their own Acts, while others are administrative offices embedded within Departments.
Many of these regulators operate on a partial or full cost recovery basis. For example, Energy Safe Victoria fully cost recovers and funds all of its expenditure from revenue it raises from licence and registration fees and other streams. It is not funded through an appropriation from the Victorian State Budget.
The Victorian Regulators report is prepared and released periodically and aims to summarise key data about Victoria’s regulators. We rely substantially on the staff of participating Victorian regulators to help us compile this report and would like to thank them and acknowledge their efforts.
Previous editions of this publication contained aggregate data for the sector. However, given the differences in the scope of the data outlined above, aggregate data does not provide consistent and meaningful information, and is therefore not included in this edition.
Scope of Data
Qualitative information, in general, reflects regulators’ operations as at June 2021. Quantitative information is for the five financial years to 2019-2020 (where available).
Over the collection period, all Victorian regulators were contacted and encouraged to provide key information and operational data to BRV using a prepopulated template.
The information about individual regulators reflects returned information templates provided to BRV, incorporating any revisions or amendments where appropriate. Where possible, a contact for individual regulators has been provided for these data. Requests for further information should be made directly to regulators.
The first part of this report comprises a list of all Victorian Regulators. We have been able to report on 57 (92 per cent) of the 62 regulators contacted for this report. BRV assumes individual regulators have validated the accuracy of all information submitted.
In regard to data on the regulatory functions undertaken by the Department of Transport, the absorption of VicRoads into the Department of Transport from 1 July 2019 has meant that the data supplied to us was inconsistent with data we published in previous editions of Victorian Regulators, when VicRoads was a separate entity. Therefore it was decided that neither the VicRoads data nor the Transport Regulatory Operations Branch data would be included in this publication, but to have the data issues resolved for the next edition.
Consistent with previous editions of this publication, regulators were asked to provide information on the status of Ministerial Statements of Expectations (SOEs). It should be noted that the Department of Treasury and Finance is currently revising the SOE framework. As a transitional measure, some regulators’ SOEs have now been rolled over, pending the commencement of the new arrangements.
COVID-19: Impact on regulators
The unprecedented impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic were also felt by regulators undertaking their operations in challenging circumstances. We are particularly grateful to them for going to the effort of providing the information featured in this report.
Over the reporting period, there have been changes in the configuration and activities of a wide range of regulators, particularly in the health and human services portfolio. The impacts of the pandemic has also led to changes in regulatory arrangements and oversight functions in hotel quarantine, state border services, and management of high-risk settings.
Generally, regulators have responded through rapid re-prioritisation, re-allocation of inspectorate and authorised staff. There were high levels of collaboration to ensure protection of vulnerable and at-risk Victorians. Social distancing requirements have led to innovation in service delivery, including changes in inspection practices and review of monitoring systems, and regulators at State and local government levels have adapted rules and licensing requirements to enable Victorian businesses to adapt to a new environment.
Therefore, the data contained here will be affected by COVID-19 impacts. These may account for some of the volatility seen in the numbers, both in terms of expenses and revenue. For regulators whose operations are funded largely by cost recovery from licence and approval fees, the drop-off in economic activity has flowed through to their financial results.
Updated