Säädösten, suunnitelmien ja ohjelmien vaikutusten arvioinnin kehittäminen: Kokemuksia neljästä pilottihankkeesta

The report reviews and assesses the predicted impacts of policy measures taken by the Ministry of the Environment. The aim of the four pilot projects was to get a comprehensive view of applying the measures in practice, and, from this, to identify those areas where impact assessment could be improved and to highlight best practices.

The pilot projects clearly show that the starting point for conducting an impact assessment and the challenges of an assessment vary significantly from case to case. For example, the time needed and financial resources differ between projects and so does the object of assessment i.e. the policy measure to be assessed. Additionally, the available data and other material on which the assessment is based differ. Thus, the impact assessment should always be tailored to the specific project. On the other hand, carrying out the most essential tasks of the assessment as recommended in the guidelines (such as organising and planning the assessment, defining the objective of the assessment, identifying and describing the impacts, documenting and applying the information on the assessment) are integral to every project.

Based on the pilot projects, some new generally applicable practices were identified concerning methods for producing and documenting information on the assessment. These new practices were then incorporated into supporting material provided for conducting impact assessments.