When is a ministerial regulator more appropriate Some regulatory decision making will clearly benefit from being undertaken within a structurally separate independent regulator, but in other cases the advantages of such independent decision making are outweighed by the disadvantages of decisions being made outside the ministry. Regulatory decisions maybe better made by the minister, or by ministry officials under the oversight and direction of the minister, where one or more of the following factors set out in Table 2.2 are present (Victorian government, 2010). Where the regulator is located within a ministry, varying degrees of independence from ministerial direction can be achieved through the design of the regulatory scheme. For example, the legislation may allow the minister and ministry management to have close involvement in operational policy and the regulator’s strategy, but contain an explicit provision prohibiting anyone, including the minister, from directing individual ministry decision makers with regard to certain decisions thereby granting a limited degree of independence.
