We expect governments to protect citizens from the adverse consequences of hazardous events. At the same time it is not possible or necessarily in the best interest of citizens for all risks to be removed. A risk-based approach to the design and implementation of regulation can help to ensure that regulatory approaches are efficient, effective and account for risk/risk tradeoffs across policy objectives. Risk-based approaches to the design of regulation and compliance strategies can improve the welfare of citizens by providing better protection, more efficient government services and reduced costs for business. Across the OECD there is great potential to improve the operation of risk policy as few governments have taken steps to develop a coherent risk governance policy for managing regulation.   

This publication presents recent OECD research and analysis on risk and regulatory policy.  The chapters discuss core challenges today. They offer measures for developing, or improving, coherent risk governance policies. Topics include: challenges in designing regulatory policy frameworks to manage risks; different cultural and legal dimensions of risk regulatory concepts across OECD; analytical models and principles for decision making in uncertain situations; key elements of risk regulation and governance institutions; the use of management-based regulation to help firms make risk-related behavioural changes; an analysis of the risk-based frameworks of regulators in five OECD countries (Australia, Ireland, Netherlands, Portugal, United Kingdom) and across four sectors: environment, food safety, financial markets and health and safety; and the elements for designing formal guidelines for risk prioritisation, assessment, management and communication. 

List of Abbreviations
Executive Summary
Chapter 1. Challenges to Designing Regulatory Policy Frameworks to Manage Risks
-Introduction
-Challenges to a coherent risk policy
-Steps towards the development of better risk assessment processes
-Challenges to the co-ordination of risk-based regulation
-Improving the design of risk-based approaches: implications for regulatory policy
-Conclusion
-Annex 1.A1 - Framing Risk in the Public Sector
-Annex 1.A2 - Risk Policy in Practice
Chapter 2. Risk Regulatory Concepts and the Law
-Introduction
-Risk regulatory concepts and the regulating of public administration
-The different areas in which risk regulatory concpets are being used
-Defining risk regulatory concepts
-Why have risk regulatory concepts been criticised?
-Risk regulatory concepts and the role of law: a descriptive account
-Law is a form of legal culture
-Law and the constituting and limiting of public administration
-Accountability mechanisms and the challenging of decisions
-A framework for a critical and contextual approach to risk regulatory concepts
-Conclusions
Chapter 3. Strategic Issues in Risk Regulation and Risk Management
-Introduction
-The implications of regulatory science for risk management
-Regulatory science and trans-science: scientific analysis versus popular perception
-Towards procedural rationality when facing uncertainty
-The core concepts of risk analysis and management: risk, uncertainty, and probability
-Decision rules when deciding under uncertainty
-The precautionary approach: an idea in search of a definition
-The precautionary principle: policy implications
-The lessons for risk analysis and management
-Instituional implications: avoiding separating risk assessment and risk management
-Differences in risk perceptions and in regulatory regimes
-Conclusion
-Annex 3.A1 - Recent Trends in the Theory of Decision Making - Towards Procedural Rationality
Chapter 4. Risk Regulation and Governance Institutions
-Introduction
-The challenge of risk
-Institutions to assess and manage risk
-Risk regulation through the policy cycle
-The challenge of interconnectedness
-Conclusion
Chapter 5. Management-based Regulation - Implications for Public Policy
-Introduction
-Management-basd regulation in the regulatory toolkit
-Conditions for the use of management-based regulation
-Does management-based regulation work - and why?
-Designing effective management-based regulation
-Regulatory impact analysis and management-based regulation
-Implementing management-based regulation: A changing government role?
-Conclusion
Chapter 6. Risk-based Regulation: Choices, Practices and Lessons Being Learnt
-Introduction
-What is risk-based regulation?
-Designing risk-based frameworks
-Risk assessment in practice
-Evaluation of risk-based frameworks
-Conclusion
-Annex 6.A1 - Methodology
-Annex 6.A2 - Questionnaire Used for Semi-structured Interviews
-Annex 6.A3 - Outline of the Different Risk-based Inspection Systems Included in the Research
Chapter 7. Why Governments Need Guidelines for Risk Assessment and Management
-Introduction
-Zero risk is not an option: Towards an optimal portfolio of risks
-Consideration of full distribution of outcomes, and of controversie on evidence
-Adddressing gaps in knowledge
-Weighing costs and benefits of risk management
-Transparent decisions, based on consultation
-A whole-of-government approach
-Open government builds trust
-Stakeholder participation, especially to cope with innovation
-Improving the capacities of governments for the systematic assessment, management, and communication of risk
-Conclusion