Outcome Performance Measures of Environmental Compliance Assurance

This report analyses the experience of ten OECD countries in the design and implementation ofquantitative indicators used to assess the outcomes of environmental enforcement authorities’ efforts toensure compliance with pollution prevention and control regulations.To respond to the growing demand for results-oriented work methods and the need for performancemanagement and accountability at the time of severe budget constraints, more and more environmentalenforcement authorities are working to develop indicators to characterise improvements in behaviour of theregulated community (intermediate outcomes) or environmental conditions (final outcomes) stemmingfrom their activities.The report considers six types of intermediate and final outcome performance measures, includingcompliance rates and indicators of improved environmental management practices and reduced risk. Basedon the OECD criteria for the evaluation of environmental indicators – measurability, analytical soundnessand policy relevance – the paper identifies key challenges for developing and using specific categories ofcompliance assurance outcome indicators and suggests several ways to improve their effectiveness.The review of a “toolbox” of existing outcome indicators and the analysis of their respective strengths andweaknesses suggests that it is not possible to identify a “best practice” approach or a universal optimal setof indicators. The functionality of individual outcome measures ultimately depends on their purpose (e.g.internal performance assessment or external accountability) and suitability for joint analysis with theenforcement authority’s resource (input) and activity (output) indicators.The report identifies several issues for further analysis.

OECD Environment Working Papers

Outcome Performance Measures of Environmental Compliance Assurance

Current Practices, Constraints and Ways Forward