As of 2001, every regulatory proposal of the German government has to be accompanied by an regulatory impact analysis (RIA) that indicates the increase or decrease in the financial and administrative burden the legislation will cause, as well as sustainability aspects and generally every significant intended impact and unintended side effect. Regulatory impact assessments aim to shape government action more effectively and efficiently, to restrict state intervention to a necessary minimum and to include possible alternatives.
The Joint Rules of Procedure of the Federal Ministries (Gemeinsame Geschäftsordnung) describe the process for bills drafted by the federal ministries. Lead ministries need to comply with a host of requirements in the legislative process. Their number has increased significantly since the National Regulatory Control Council (Normenkontrollrat) was established in 2006. The Council is the political steering body that monitors compliance with the principles of standardised bureaucracy cost measurement. One key component is determining the total measurable compliance costs – for the addressees of the legislation in question (citizens, the businesses and the administrative sector).
Since 2011, BASt has been measuring the compliance costs as part of the RIA for selected regulatory proposals of the Federal Ministry of Transport in the field of road transport on the basis of the guideline on the identification and presentation of compliance costs in legislative proposals by the federal government (Leitfaden zur Ermittlung und Darstellung des Erfüllungsaufwands in Regelungsvorhaben der Bundesregierung). This includes already when preparing the draft law or ordinance, the reviewing of the increase or decrease in the time and money required, including bureaucracy costs that result from a law or an ordinance. A distinction is made between one-off transition costs and annual consequential costs. A detailed monetary benefit estimation comparable to a cost-benefit-analysis is not conducted within the scope of the RIA.