Utah Office of Regulatory Relief

H.B. 217 passed during the 2021 legislative session, created the Utah Office of Regulatory Relief — the nation’s first office of its kind. The office is housed under the Governor’s Office of Economic Opportunity. Its directive is to create a framework for analyzing risk levels to Utah consumers related to health, safety, and financial well-being. The framework will consider permanently removing or temporarily waiving laws and regulations that inhibit the creation of new companies or limit the success of existing companies and industries.

Go Utah’s Office of Regulatory Relief has two objectives:

1. Administer the general regulatory sandbox.

2. Manage the regulatory relief webpage.

A regulatory sandbox is a framework that allows startups and other innovators to test their product or concept in a controlled environment under a regulator’s supervision. A regulatory sandbox may bring the cost of innovation down, reduce barriers to entry, and allow regulators to collect information that can be shared with policymakers.

There are three other sandboxes in Utah: fintech, insurance, and legal services. The general sandbox is the first of its kind in the United States. It will allow all types of businesses to waive state law to temporarily experiment with products, production methods, or services, giving entrepreneurs a chance to see if customers value products that don’t fit within the state’s current regulatory framework. Additionally, the sandbox will help policymakers evaluate which regulations are necessary and which ones are overly burdensome.

Dane Ishihara is the director of the newly formed Utah Office of Regulatory Relief and has over 15 years of experience working for the state of Utah.

“I look forward to using my experience at the Utah Department of Commerce in regulation and my experience at Go Utah in economic development to develop a system that allows entrepreneurs an opportunity to develop their product or services while maintaining limited risk to Utah consumers,” said Ishihara.

On the office’s webpage, users are encouraged to make suggestions regarding laws and regulations that could be modified or eliminated to reduce the regulatory burden on residents and businesses in the state. At least quarterly, the regulatory relief office compiles the suggestions. It also provides a written report outlining common suggestions to the governor, the Business and Labor Interim Committee, and the Economic Development and Workforce Services Interim Committee.

The General Regulatory Sandbox Program Advisory Committee was created to assist the office in meeting these objectives. The Committee consists of three regulatory state agencies, six private industries, one state senate appointee, and one state house appointee. It’s responsible for advising the office on applications for participation in the sandbox and for evaluating information submitted through the regulatory relief webpage.

To learn more about the Office of Regulatory Relief, visit business.utah. gov/regulatory-relief.