Table 3. Method used to calculate the cost of a new act or regulation, New Zealand, 1999–2010.

Variable	Valuea	Data or method of calculation
Parliamentary input to law-making
$TP = total annual cost of running the parliamentary service, including salaries for politicians and staff, capital investment and overheads	US$ 94 072 494	US$ 94.07 million for the 2009–2010 year, reported by the New Zealand Treasury19
%P = proportion of parliamentary activity attributed to law-making	26.7%	Calculated using the sitting-days method (Table 1)
$P = annual cost of parliamentary activity attributed to law-making	US$ 25 084 907	$P = $TP x %P
Government agency input to law-making
$TA = total annual cost of all government agencies providing policy advice to other branches of government and parliament. The full cost includes depreciation and the capital charge for the agenciesb	US$ 354 929 618	US$ 354.93 million for the 2009–2010 year17
%A = proportion of policy advice related to generating new laws	16.7%	See main text
$A = total annual cost of policy advice related to new laws provided by government agencies to parliament	US$ 59 273 246	$A = $TA x %A
Legislative outputs
Na = average annual number of acts	18.7	See Table 2
La = average number of pages per act	73.9	See Table 2
Act output = total annual act output, pages	1381.9	Act output = Na x La
Nr = average annual number of regulations	109.5	See Table 2
Lr = average number of pages per regulation	11.1	See Table 2
Reg output = total annual regulation output, pages	1215.5	Reg output = Nr x Lr
Total output = total annual act and regulation output, pages	2597.4	Total output = act output + reg output
Pa = proportion of legislative output comprising acts (weighted by page length)	0.53	Pa = Act output/Total output
Pr = proportion of legislative output comprising regulations (weighted by page length)	0.47	Pr = Reg output/Total output
Total cost
Total cost = total annual cost of parliamentary activity and policy advice attributed to law-making	US$ 84 million	Total cost = $P + $A
Total cost A = total annual cost of acts	US$ 45 million	Total cost A = Total cost x Pa
Total cost R = total annual cost of regulations	US$ 39 million	Total cost R = Total cost x Pr
Average cost
Act cost = average cost of a new act	US$ 2.6 million	Act cost = Total cost A/Na
Reg cost = average cost of a new regulation	US$ 382 000	Reg cost = Total cost R/Nr
Page cost = average cost per page of acts and regulations collectively	US$ 32 434	Page cost = Total cost/Total output

US$, United States dollar.

^a Monetary values were converted from New Zealand dollars to United States dollars using the 2010 exchange rate of 1 United States dollar = 1.387 New Zealand dollars.

^b We used data reported by the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade to the Committee to Review Expenditure on Policy Advice.¹⁷ The cost of policy advice from agencies that deal primarily with legal issues, such as the Crown Law and the Law Commission, was also included.¹⁷