OECD Regulatory Policy Outlook 2025

Requirements for regulatory impact assessments (RIAs) have existed since 2017 in Portugal. Originally focusing on subordinate regulations, subsequent reforms to Portugal’s RIA framework extended its scope to encompass all primary laws. Reflecting this change, administrative burdens and substantive compliance costs are measured on all subordinate regulations for citizen and businesses, whereas they are only quantified for some primary laws. Recent reforms have also included attempts to enhance and automate the calculation of compliance costs in existing rules, and better integrate statistical information to improve evidence-based decision making. Methodological guidance for RIA was also recently updated in Portugal, with a particular focus on poverty, gender equality, disability, and climate action impact assessment.

Consultations are required for both major primary laws and subordinate regulations, and are posted on a central portal. In 2021, the Government of Portugal launched Participa.gov.pt to support participatory processes in the public administration. Though not mandatory for all rules, ex post evaluations of existing regulations have been conducted, although their focus is generally limited to matters of administrative simplification. For instance, the government led the “Cooperativa na Hora” initiative, which streamlined and simplified various administrative procedures related to commercial registration and civil registration.

In 2021, Portugal’s regulatory oversight body, the Technical Unit for Legislative Impact Assessment (UTAIL) transferred to Portugal’s new Competence Centre for Planning, Policies and Foresight of the Public Administration (PlanAPP). PlanAPP absorbed all functions of UTAIL and integrated new functions of offering technical support to public bodies for the assessment, transposition and implementation of directives and regulations emerging from the European Union.

Indicators presented on RIA and stakeholder engagement only cover processes carried out by the executive, which initiates approx. 10% of primary laws in Portugal. There is no mandatory requirement for consultation with the general public nor for conducting RIAs for primary laws initiated by the parliament.