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Who pays for standards used in New Zealand?

We often get queries about why the products and services of Standards NZ are not free. This article explains our funding model and the role that you, our users, can have in maintaining standards for New Zealand.

Cost-recovery

Despite being embedded inside the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, Standards New Zealand does not receive direct public funding. Instead, in line with the Standards and Accreditation Act 2015, Standards NZ operates a full cost-recovery model, also known as ‘user pays’.

Standards New Zealand is required to recover from the market the costs involved in developing standards, (both domestic and Trans-Tasman), participating in international standards development activities, forums, systems and institutions, representing New Zealand’s standards needs and interests globally, maintaining and updating our existing standards catalogue and providing access (sales) of standards for users in NZ. Careful consideration goes into setting the appropriate product and service prices which must meet the principles of:

  • Equity and Transparency: costs should be recovered, at a proportionate level, from direct users and beneficiaries.
  • Efficiency: to allow for maximum benefits to be delivered at minimum cost.
  • Flexibility and Justification: costs must be real, reasonable, associated with standards development, approval, maintenance and access, and adaptable to changes in the market.

In practice this means that Standards NZ’s revenue is generated through New Zealand businesses, industry bodies and government agencies commissioning standards development work, and Standards NZ selling standards (and their content) to the market, through retail sales, subscription services and copyright licenses.

Essential functions

Compared with the standards bodies of larger economies, at Standards NZ we run a very lean operation. We provide essential functions to serve commissioning organisations’ needs, connect subject matter experts with opportunities to participate on committees, maintain relationships with commissioning agencies and key stakeholders, partner with other national and international standards bodies, participate in international forums and standards systems to represent NZ’s interests, and keep our website, web-shop and customer services running. And of course, manage and coordinate the development, maintenance and adoption of standards. All essential functions of a business that provides standards to over 370,000 users each year.

Government support

We often hear ‘why doesn’t government pay for standards?’. Well, in many ways it does. Many regulators including WorkSafe New Zealand, EECA, Ministry for Environment, Ministry of Health, and the building regulator Building System Performance fund the development and maintenance of hundreds of New Zealand, and joint Australian/New Zealand standards each year, plus the adoption of international standards by New Zealand.

EECA, Building System Performance and the Ministry of Health also sponsor (pre-fund) access to over 140 standards so that they are free for the public/industry to use.

Access free sponsored standards here(external link). 

Standards provide value for everyone

Standards are extremely valuable. They provide potential solutions to issues, resolve industry and government problems, provide a means of compliance with legislation and regulation, create commercial benefits such as trade and market access opportunities, help ensure quality assurance, productivity and performance and protect consumers from harm and risks.

We are hugely grateful for the contribution our users and commissioners make to maintaining the important standards system, including the ongoing volunteer participation of hundreds of subject matter experts as members of standards development committees which is the foundation of the system.

We acknowledge that the user pays model does have an impact on the level of participation by New Zealand businesses and agencies, the volume, breadth and currency of NZ’s standards catalogue, the level and pace of adoption of international standards, and the ease at which access to standards are possible for industry. In these tougher economic times, industry and committee members are constrained in what they can afford to contribute, despite a desire to support. The same can be said for government agencies who, like all organisations, need to make priority decisions about how and where they will spend the available funding they have.

The funding model for NZ’s standards system is a policy issue for the Ministry, rather than an operational one for Standards New Zealand as one of the delivery arms within the wider standards and conformance system and quality infrastructure in New Zealand.  At the direction of the Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, MBIE is exploring the needs, interests, challenges, opportunities, and sustainability of New Zealand’s standards system, and how best it can deliver the needs of NZ in future and be a strong economic enabler.  

Support the New Zealand standards system

We always welcome discussion from organisations who wish to learn more about ways to get involved in the standards system be it through: