Governance
Who decides what
Roles and decision rights for policy, the delegations the gate enforces, the clearance functions, and the guardrails that stop agents.
Roles
| Role | Kind | Responsibilities | Decision rights |
|---|---|---|---|
| AUDITOR Internal audit | INTERNAL | Verifies the evidence chain and tests decisions against delegations. | No decisions. Unrestricted read of the chain. |
| COUNCIL Council | INTERNAL | Adopts council policy by resolution. | Adoption by resolution. |
| EQUITY_ADVISER Equity adviser | INTERNAL | Clears distributional and human rights impact. | Equity clearance. |
| EXECUTIVE Executive | INTERNAL | Releases positions for consultation; adopts operational policies; clears for the minister or council. | Release for consultation; executive clearance; adoption of executive policies. |
| FINANCE Finance | INTERNAL | Clears cost and funding. | Finance clearance. |
| LEGAL Legal | INTERNAL | Clears lawfulness and drafting against the instrument. | Legal clearance. |
| MINISTER Minister | EXTERNAL | Decision maker where the guidelines reserve the decision; must record reasons and report any decision contrary to the recommendation. | Awards under ministerial rounds, with reasons recorded and reported. |
| POLICY_OFFICER Policy officer | INTERNAL | Works the draft the agent prepared; attaches evidence; runs consultation. | No release, clearance or adoption. |
| PRIVACY_OFFICER Privacy officer | INTERNAL | Owns collection notices, consent purposes and disclosure rules. | Approves any disclosure of one person's information to another. |
| RULES_OWNER Rules owner | INTERNAL | Owns the rules of each service; answers feedback from overturned reviews. | Accepts or declines rules feedback. |
| SUBMITTER Submitter | EXTERNAL | Makes a submission during notification. | None. |
Delegations
| Role | Decision | Note |
|---|---|---|
| EXECUTIVE | consultation release | Release a position for public or targeted consultation. |
| EXECUTIVE | policy adoption | Adopt a policy the executive owns. |
| MINISTER | policy adoption | Adopt a ministerial policy. |
| COUNCIL | policy adoption | Adopt a council policy by resolution. |
| RULES_OWNER | rule application | Apply an adopted rule to the service. |
| Clearance functions | GL-PM-07 | Legal, finance, privacy, equity and executive, in order, each by the role that owns the function. |
Guardrails
GL-PM-01 Adoption is a government decision
The agents draft, test and route. The minister, the executive or the council adopts a position, with reasons and an instrument reference.
GL-PM-02 Release for consultation is the executive's
A position goes public only when the executive releases it; the question, the period and the evidence go with it.
GL-PM-03 Every position cites its evidence
A version with no evidence attached cannot enter clearance. Each item of evidence names its source and its finding.
GL-PM-04 Impact tested on live cases before clearance
The proposed rule is run against the live caseload of the service it governs; the count, the direction and the distribution go on the version; individuals appear by reference only.
GL-PM-05 Every submission read and answered
Submissions are grouped by theme with counts and positions; the next version records the response to each theme.
GL-PM-06 Versions are immutable
A version, once in consultation or clearance, is never edited; the change goes in a new version with a change note and an author.
GL-PM-07 Clearance by named people in each function
Legal, finance, privacy, equity and executive clearances are recorded against a person with a comment, not by email.
GL-PM-08 Rules as code
Every position carries a machine-readable rule; on adoption the rules owner applies it to the service that runs it and the feedback loop closes.
GL-PM-09 Review dates and legislative change tracked
Every policy in force has a review date; an amended instrument flags every policy that cites it.