Decreasing administrative burdens and deregulation in Finland by means of applying the one-in, one-out principle

The first pilots of the Finnish one-in, one-out principle and the respective regulatory impact assessment (RIA) model have taken place. By means of these pilots the suitability of the model for law drafting and the development needs of the model were examined.

Document analysis, personal interviews and surveys were the key methods for obtaining data from the law drafters and companies. According to the key results, the model has elements that make it suitable to the Finnish context.

When developing the model further, three issues are to be taken into account. First, the model needs to be supported with user guidelines and capacity building. Second, clearcut targets, processes, resources and tools need be in place to gather and analyze the needed data. Third, coordination across the administrative sectors of the ministries need be ensured by means of one-in, one-out accounting and a one-in, one-out balance.

According to Prime Minister Juha Sipilä´s Government Programme “the legislative policy steering in Finland will be clarified with the aim of reducing the net number of regulations and increasing the use of alternative instruments. The aim is deregulation and the reduction of the administrative burden.” A pilot project to test the implementation of the one-in, one-out model makes part of this endeavor. This emphasises the importance of the principles that ministries must follow in introducing proposals for regulation and deregulation in order to ensure that each new regulation is effective, targeted and proportionate, and that overall costs to businesses are kept to a minimum.