RTO.au / Using this

How to ask a regulator a question

Specific, in writing, and about your situation.

Regulators generally answer questions and are asked poorly. A general question produces a general answer that repeats the standard, which the provider had already read.

A useful question describes the specific arrangement, states what the provider intends to do, identifies the requirement it is uncertain about, and asks whether the proposed approach would meet it.

In writing matters, both because it produces a considered answer and because a written response is something the provider can point to later, though it is not a determination and does not bind an assessment.

It is worth being honest in the question. An arrangement described favourably produces an answer to a situation that does not exist, which is worse than no answer.

Where the answer is that it depends on the circumstances, that is frequently the correct answer and it identifies which circumstances matter, which is the useful part.

It is worth adding that a written answer from a regulator describes how a requirement is understood at that time and does not prevent a different view at audit. It is evidence of good faith rather than a determination, and it should be relied on as the first rather than the second.