Progress on our recommendations
Inquiry into the Plumbers, Gasfitters, and Drainlayers Board: Follow-up report.
This report contains several suggestions for further improvement, but we make no further recommendations. Some of these suggestions are not in the direct control of the Plumbers, Gasfitters, and Drainlayers Board, and need attention as part of the wider review of occupational registration and licensing. We expect that the Board and the Ministry of Business, Innovation, and Employment (MBIE) will build these suggestions into their routine business plans.
The table below summarises the Board's progress in addressing the 15 recommendations in our 2010 inquiry report.
| We recommended that the Plumbers, Gasfitters, and Drainlayers Board: | Progress by the end of 2013 | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | … review its Licensing Policy Statement to ensure that it complies with the Plumbers, Gasfitters, and Drainlayers Act 2006 and administrative law principles. | Complete. The Board withdrew the Licensing Policy Statement and replaced it with more specific policies. However, the policy on exemptions under sections 12-25 raises further matters. |
| 2 | … discuss with the Department of Building and Housing whether mechanisms under the Plumbers, Gasfitters, and Drainlayers Act 2006 are clear and appropriate for controlling the work of exempt people carrying out plumbing, gasfitting, or drainlaying work. | Partly complete. The Board has stated its case to MBIE, which is now the relevant ministry. This will be considered in the review of the Plumbers, Gasfitters, and Drainlayers Act 2006, which is being scoped. |
| 3 | … revise its Licensing Policy Statement to include a discussion of how it defines "supervision". | Complete. The Board has a Supervision Policy in place and has consulted twice recently on changes. However, we have some concerns about the Supervision Policy. |
| 4 | … review its Registration Policy Statement to ensure that it complies with the Plumbers, Gasfitters, and Drainlayers Act 2006 and administrative law principles. | Complete. |
| 5 | ... write further policies to guide the exercise of its other powers under the Plumbers, Gasfitters, and Drainlayers Act 2006 and, in doing so, that it carefully consider the legal basis for such policies. | Complete, but see Part 3 about the sections 12-25 Exemptions Policy and the Supervision Policy. |
| 6 | … consider with the Department of Building and Housing whether the legislation needs to be amended to deal with registration and licensing issues. | Continuing. The Board has submitted views to MBIE in writing three times since July 2012, and has met MBIE on other occasions. |
| 7 | ... in preparing questions for any future examinations, ensure that the questions are appropriate for assessment under the Plumbers, Gasfitters, and Drainlayers Act 2006, are able to be answered, are free of mistakes, and do not contain unrealistic scenarios. | Complete. |
| 8 | ... review its processes for preparing and moderating questions, and for setting examination papers. | Complete. |
| 9 | ... work with the Ministry of Economic Development and the Department of Building and Housing to consider what changes may be needed to enable the gas certification system to operate as an effective public safety protection. | Our findings contributed to an industry-wide review of gas certification later in 2010. This led to reform to clarify legal roles and responsibilities around installations and certificates. The Board is operating within the new legislative framework. |
| 10 | … work closely with the Ministry of Economic Development and the Department of Building and Housing to develop a gas audit process that provides adequate assurance of the safety of self-certified gas installations. | |
| 11 | … review its policies for registering well-qualified and experienced plumbers and gasfitters migrating to New Zealand to ensure that its current policies give appropriate effect to its statutory discretion and to ensure that New Zealand makes the best use of the skills of such immigrants. | Complete. |
| 12 | … clarify whether it can issue provisional licences to overseas plumbers, gasfitters, and drainlayers before they apply for registration. | Complete. |
| 13 | … maintain and embed a practice of reviewing all of its fees and charges against the good practice guide, Charging fees for public sector goods and services, to ensure that it is budgeting and setting fees in keeping with its legal authority and good practice expectations. | Complete. |
| 14 | … establish a simple and effective complaints process for tradespeople who are unhappy with a particular Board decision or action, so that there is an accessible and transparent mechanism for getting a prompt review of a decision or action. | Complete. |
| 15 | … establish an immediate and short-term process for considering and resolving grievances arising from Board decisions that may have wrongly disadvantaged a tradesperson. | Complete. |