Legislative Compliance
Direction on managing legislative compliance to ensure the department meets requirements in key legislation.
2021 Jul 27 - new policy.
- Policy statement
- The department is committed to continuous improvement in implementing and monitoring legislative compliance.
- The department is responsible for applying and implementing key legislation. Primary responsibility for legislative compliance rests with the senior officer of particular business units.
- The department has wide-ranging legislative responsibilities and requires an overview of legislative compliance.
- This policy aims to provide appropriate systems to gain assurance that:
- the department is aware of its legislative responsibilities
- staff are aware of, and comply with, legislative responsibilities
- there are appropriate arrangements for monitoring, enforcing (where appropriate) and reporting on compliance with legislative obligations.
- Senior officers are responsible for implementing compliance and accountability measures for legislation.
- Senior officers determine appropriate measures by assessing the risk and effect of non-compliance.
- Non-compliance with legislation is managed appropriately and in accordance with legislation and applicable department policies.
- Audience and applicability
- All permanent and temporary corporate staff.
- Context
- The Internal Audit and Risk Management Policy for the NSW Public Sector (PDF 545 KB) requires the department to establish a control framework and determine whether the appropriate processes are in place to assess whether laws, legislation and regulations are complied with.
- Responsibilities and delegations
- Responsible officers (as listed in the Legislative compliance procedures (PDF 551 KB)):
- determine the legislation their business units are responsible for using the list provided in the procedures
- establish and maintain appropriate and defensible legislative compliance, including appropriate governance arrangements
- report on legislative compliance in accordance with the procedures
- maintain or delegate an officer at the director or manager level to maintain appropriate systems and processes for recording instances of recording instances of reportable non-compliance. This cannot be sub-delegated
- undertake appropriate remedial action/ensure that appropriate remedial action is taken to address reportable non-compliance
- escalate issues involving non-compliance to the appropriate Executive Director or Deputy Secretary where required
- establish processes to identify and manage relevant changed compliance requirements arising from new legislation or legislative amendments
- coordinate on compliance with other identified responsible officers where responsibility for legislation is shared between business areas
- liaise with Legal Services in relation to the legislative compliance assurance framework
- liaise with the relevant regulator/authority body as appropriate or required.
- Legal Services:
- maintain a current list of portfolio legislation and key or high-risk legislation
- advise on legislation and legislative compliance matters as required
- develop, maintain and review the legislative compliance framework, support materials, advice and tools.
- Responsible officers (as listed in the Legislative compliance procedures (PDF 551 KB)):
- Monitoring and review
- The General Counsel, Legal Services monitors the implementation of this policy, regularly reviews its contents to ensure relevance and accuracy, and updates it as needed.
- Contact
Senior Legal Officer, Risk
legal@det.nsw.edu.au