Legislation (Official Versions) Regulations 2015

2015/267

Coat of Arms of New Zealand

Legislation (Official Versions) Regulations 2015

Jerry Mateparae, Governor-General

Order in Council

At Wellington this 16th day of November 2015

Present:
His Excellency the Governor-General in Council

Pursuant to section 22 of the Legislation Act 2012, His Excellency the Governor-General, acting on the advice and with the consent of the Executive Council, makes the following regulations.

Regulations

1 Title

These regulations are the Legislation (Official Versions) Regulations 2015.

2 Commencement

These regulations come into force on 5 January 2016.

3 Features of official versions of legislation

(1)

An official version of legislation that is issued under section 17 of the Legislation Act 2012 must comply with this regulation.

(2)

An official version of legislation must be—

(a)

an electronic version of legislation issued by the Chief Parliamentary Counsel on the New Zealand Legislation website (http://www.legislation.govt.nz); or

(b)

a printed version of legislation issued by the Chief Parliamentary Counsel or issued on his or her behalf by a contracted printer.

(3)

An official version of legislation must display or exhibit on its front page a representation of the New Zealand Coat of Arms.

(4)

An official version of legislation may also contain a statement to the effect that it—

(a)

is issued under the authority of the New Zealand Government; or

(b)

is issued under the authority of the Legislation Act 2012 or was originally issued under the Acts and Regulations Publication Act 1989 or a corresponding former Act.

(5)

There may be electronic and printed official versions of the same legislation.

4 Revocation

The Legislation (Official Versions) Regulations 2013 (SR 2013/243) are revoked.

Michael Webster,
Clerk of the Executive Council.

Explanatory note

This note is not part of the regulations, but is intended to indicate their general effect.

These regulations, which come into force on 5 January 2016, revoke and replace the Legislation (Official Versions) Regulations 2013 (the 2013 regulations).

The purpose of these regulations is to carry over from the 2013 regulations the features of official versions of legislation that may be issued by the Chief Parliamentary Counsel under section 17 of the Legislation Act 2012 and to remove the limitation relating to the format that can be used in an online official version. Under the 2013 regulations, the only online version of legislation that could be given official status was legislation published in PDF (portable document format). These regulations enable official status to be given to both PDF and HTML (hypertext markup language) online versions, which are the electronic formats currently used on the New Zealand Legislation website (http://www.legislation.govt.nz), and enable official status to be given to other suitable document formats in the future.

The prescribed features of an official version of legislation are that it—

  • must display or exhibit on its front page a representation of the New Zealand Coat of Arms:

  • may contain a statement to the effect that the legislation is issued under the authority of the New Zealand Government:

  • may contain a statement to the effect that the legislation is issued under the authority of the Legislation Act 2012 or was originally issued under the Acts and Regulations Publication Act 1989 or a corresponding former Act.

Issued under the authority of the Legislation Act 2012.

Date of notification in Gazette: 19 November 2015.

These regulations are administered by the Parliamentary Counsel Office.