Administrative simplification is an integrated part of many governments’ regulatory reform policies and broader programmes for public governance. Simplification strategies focus on two dimensions: ex ante control of the burden introduced by new regulations (a flow concept) and the reform ex post of existing burdensome regulation (a stock concept). Some countries have strong ex ante strategies; others put their simplification efforts on the review of regulations ex post. The strategies outlined above are, however, not mutually exclusive and countries tend to use a range of strategies at the same time.