Attach a review date and an evaluation plan to every new regulation

The problem: rules are easy to add and hard to remove. Few are ever checked against the outcomes they were meant to deliver.

The proposal: every significant new regulation carries two things from day one. A review or sunset date, after which it lapses unless renewed. And a short evaluation plan stating what the rule is supposed to achieve, how success will be measured and who will do the measuring. A sunset provision is a clause that makes a law expire on a set date unless it is actively extended.

Who acts: legislatures and regulators adopt the requirement; an independent body, such as an audit office, checks the plans.

Costs and trade-offs: evaluation takes money and time, and some rules, such as basic safety standards, should not lapse by accident. Exempt those by naming them, rather than exempting everything quietly.

First step: apply the requirement to a single new regulation next year and publish how it goes.