Regulatory Research and Development Overview
The Regulatory Research and Development Business Unit (RR&D) supports the NRCS's first strategic goal, which is to develop and maintain compulsory specifications, commonly referred to as VCs under the NRCS Act, No. 5 of 2008 as amended by the Legal Metrology Act, No. 9 of 2014. Legal Metrology Technical Regulations under the Legal Metrology Act, 2014 (Act 9 of 2014).
The Unit's output is VCs and TRs published by the Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition prescribing minimum requirements for products that are regulated by the NRCS. The Unit develops and maintains VCs and TRs for the five broad sectors under the NRCS, namely, Automotive; Electro-Technical; Chemicals, Mechanical and Materials (CMM), Food and Associated Industries (FAI), and for fair trade based on accurate measurements under the Legal Metrology Act.
The Unit develops and maintains VCs and TRs through some of the following activities:
- Identification of the need for new, or amendments to existing, VCs and TRs according to the latest international and national requirements.
- Conducting feasibility studies, risk assessment, and impact assessment in the process of determining the minimum requirement in VCs and TRs.
- Collaboration with stakeholders to determine minimum requirements and associated conformity activities in VCs and TRs.
- Conduct regulatory research to benchmark the NRCS's regulatory practices with international best practices and to inform regulatory decisions that are included in VCs and TRs.
- Support the Industrial Policy Action Plan (IPAP) of the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (the dtic) by developing VCs and TRs that promote industrial development initiatives across different key action programmes such as green industries, electro-technical, footwear, plastics and chemicals, automotive products and components, and agro-processing.
