Public and governmental organisations in particular are accountable for their actions and must justify their interventions.  As such, once a policy or regulation has been implemented there is a need to evaluate whether it has been effective.  This requires evidence to be presented on the costs and the effectiveness of the intervention.  As with impact assessment, this is often undertaken by an independent third party such as RPA.

As well as providing the necessary transparency and accountability, evaluating the success (or otherwise) of a policy or regulation is crucial to learning lessons for the future.  It is vital to know what worked well, what did not and consider how alternative approaches might improve the results.  The knowledge generated by evaluation plays a critical role in the development and refinement of new and existing legislation and policies. 

RPA has carried out a large number of evaluation studies for different Directorate Generals of the European Commission and the UK Government.  This includes studies under framework contracts with the European Commission (DG Enterprise and DG Sanco) as well as work for private sector clients and industry associations for which we often analyse the consequences of EU and national regulation at the EU, national, sector and individual company levels. 

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