Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) — A Presidential Decree “On Measures to Ensure Stability, Improve the Quality, and Effectiveness of Legal Regulation of Public Relations" has been issued.

According to the Decree, starting from 1 October 2024, a simplified and expanded regulatory impact assessment process for draft normative legal acts will be introduced.

Under this new process:

- Simplified Assessment: Prior to drafting a project, the following regulatory instruments will undergo a simplified assessment, with a preliminary conclusion to be obtained from the Ministry of Justice:

  - Determination of obligations, requirements, prohibitions, responsibilities, or other restrictions on individuals and legal entities, changes to them, or enforcement measures related to compliance with these requirements;

  - Introduction of benefits, preferences, and other forms of state support provided to business entities, and the expansion or reduction of their application.

- Expanded Assessment: The following draft normative legal acts will undergo an expanded assessment:

  - Drafts identified through simplified assessment as having a high level of economic, social, or environmental impact;

  - Drafts subject to expanded assessment by orders from the Chambers of the Oliy Majlis, the Presidential Administration, the Cabinet of Ministers, or by proposals from authorized evaluation bodies, public opinion, and other interested parties.

Starting in 2025, the following procedures will be implemented:

- Post-Enactment Monitoring: After a normative legal act regulating public relations and establishing legal norms comes into force, annual monitoring will be conducted by the responsible state body to analyze the achievement of the act's goals, ensure its enforcement, and collect statistical data for assessment.

- Evaluation Every Three Years: Every three years, the responsible state body will assess the effectiveness of the normative legal act to determine its success in achieving its objectives.

- Designated Monitoring Responsibility: The adopted normative legal act will specify the state body responsible for its monitoring and evaluation.

- Publication of Results: The results of monitoring and evaluation will be submitted to the Ministry of Justice and published on the official website of the responsible state body.

- Regulatory Impact Assessment: Legal monitoring of legislative acts will be conducted as part of the regulatory impact assessment.

- Comprehensive Plan: The Ministry of Justice will annually develop a comprehensive plan for conducting regulatory impact assessments and anti-corruption examinations of legislative acts, which will be approved by the Cabinet of Ministers.

- Reporting: The Ministry of Justice will present a report on the implementation of the comprehensive plan to the Cabinet of Ministers and the Presidential Administration.

From 1 October 2024:

- Mandatory Expert Opinions: State bodies will be required to obtain opinions from state expert scientific research institutions on draft laws. These opinions and materials from discussions must be included when submitting the draft to the Ministry of Justice and the adopting authorities.

- Regulatory Impact Assessment Rating: A rating system for evaluating the regulatory impact of draft legislative acts will be introduced to analyze and assess the effectiveness of state bodies' activities, reward employees, and address shortcomings.

  - The Ministry of Justice will determine the rating annually, which will be published in the media.

  - State employees responsible for evaluation and who rank in the top three will receive a one-time monetary reward of at least three times their monthly salary, funded by the respective state body's off-budget resources.

  - Measures will be implemented to improve the performance of state bodies with low ratings.