The youth-check is an effective instrument of regulatory impact assessment. In order to raise awareness of the concerns of young people at an early stage in the legislative process, the youth-check is applied to proposed legislation during the draft bill stage. Bills of the German Federal Government are examined with regard to their effect on young people between 12 and 27 years of age. Both intended and unintended effects of the proposed legislation are thereby identified.
Assessment procedure of the youth-check
The youth-check is based on a two-stage assessment process that consists of a preliminary and a main assessment. The preliminary assessment is the basis for the decision whether the bill is to subjected to a detailed main assessment. If young people between 12 and 27 years of age are specifically affected by the proposed legislation, the extend to which they are affected is assessed in the main assessment. During the detailed main assessment, each draft bill is examined as to which impact dimensions are affected by the proposed in the individual areas of life.
The youth-check is based on a standardized assessment tool. The underlying assessment chart consists of six areas of life and eleven impact dimensions. While the areas of life reflect the everyday worlds of young people, the impact dimensions represent aspects that are important for young people in the respective areas of life and thus provide indications as to how a measure could affect them.
This ensures that the effects of the assessed proposals are mapped as comprehensively as possible and can be compared across legislative proposals. The methodology of the assessment tool was developed in a participatory process with civil society, the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth and the German Research Institute for Public Administration.
Here you can find a translated example of a youth-check to demonstrate its structure and content:
Raising awareness for the concerns of young people
The youth-check has been established as an effective instrument of regulatory impact assessment to draw attention to the concerns of young people. It helps to raise the awareness of policy makers, public administration and the expert community with regard to youth as a stage of life in its own right. The youth-check shows that legislative proposals from all policy areas affect young people.
Due to its objectivity, the youth-check receives attention and a positive response in the ministerial administration and across party lines.
In an OECD comparison only Austria, France and New Zealand state that they carry out an ex-ante regulatory impact assessment for youth besides Germany. The youth check serves as a role model for similar projects for the German Federal States.
If you are interested in the youth-check or would like to exchange experiences on youth-specific regulatory impact assessment in your country, please contact us.