Crime Statistics (Fees and Charges) Regulations 2025

The Regulations use a concise set of concepts to structure charging for customised crime-statistics work. The central concept is that the Chief Statistician may impose fees and charges for two categories of customised services (reg 4(1)): preparation and supply of customised data consultancies and associated explanatory material, and provision of statistical analysis, research or other statistical advice. The first category is further exemplified by database searches, data extraction, data packaging and liaison with Victoria Police, other agencies or courts (reg 4(1)(a)(i)-(iv)). These enumerated items operate as examples of the types of work that may attract fees; they are within the scope of the regulation rather than exhaustive definitions.

A second core concept is the billing structure: a minimum block charge that covers the first two hours or part of two hours, and a separate rate for each subsequent hour or part of an hour (reg 4(2)(a)-(b); Schedule 1). The phrase "or part" in both the first block and subsequent increments is legally significant because it makes the first block a minimum billing unit and allows fractional hours thereafter to be billed as whole hourly units. Schedule 1 expresses the applicable rates in fee units rather than dollars, linking the monetary value to the Monetary Units Act 2004 (Explanatory details).

Third, the Regulations treat the published fee amounts as inclusive of goods and services tax (note to reg 4). The Explanatory details set out the operational rule for converting fee units to dollars, stating that the fee is calculated by multiplying the number of fee units by the fee-unit value set under that monetary statute, and that the fee-unit value for 1 July 2025 is $16.81; fees may be rounded to the nearest 10 cents (Explanatory details).

Fourth, administrative discretion is explicit: the Chief Statistician may waive or reduce any fee if satisfied it is appropriate (reg 5). The Regulations do not prescribe criteria, process, or review for that satisfaction; the concept is a discretionary power rather than a statutory entitlement.

Fifth, there is a temporal governance concept: commencement and sunset. The Regulations commence on 1 July 2025 (reg 3) and, per the Endnotes, will sunset on 1 July 2035 under the Subordinate Legislation Act 1994 mechanism (Endnotes 1). Finally, the authorisation concept is present: these Regulations are made under section 10 of the Crime Statistics Act 2014 (reg 2), so their legal footing is subordinate to that Act.

These core concepts define who may charge, what may be charged for, how charges are calculated and adjusted, what taxes are included, and that there is an executive discretion to waive charges.

The Regulations affect three categories of actors directly and others indirectly.

1. Requesters of customised data and analysis. The primary payers are persons or organisations that request the services described in reg 4(1). That group includes researchers, media organisations, private consultants, businesses, legal practitioners, insurers, public interest groups and others who seek customised database searches, extracts, packaging, liaison with police/agencies/courts, and bespoke statistical analysis or advice. The Regulations make that group financially responsible for the first two hours (or part) at the published first-block rate, and for subsequent hours at the published hourly rate (reg 4(2); Schedule 1).

2. The Chief Statistician. The Chief Statistician is the decision-maker: the official may impose the fees, calculate the charges according to Schedule 1 and the Monetary Units Act conversion rules (Explanatory details), and may waive or reduce fees where satisfied appropriate (reg 4(1)-(2); reg 5). The Chief Statistician (or their office) will carry the administrative burden of implementing the charging model, billing, collecting revenue, and exercising waiver discretion.

3. Victoria Police, relevant agencies and courts. The Regulations explicitly contemplate liaison with Victoria Police and other agencies or courts as part of chargeable services (reg 4(1)(a)(iv)). That implies those bodies may be engaged by the Chief Statistician to provide support or access necessary for customised requests; time spent coordinating or obtaining permission may produce additional chargeable work.

4. Finance and procurement units within requesters. Entities that routinely budget for external data services will be affected by the block-plus-hourly pricing model and the fee-unit conversion and adjustment mechanism: they will need to budget for the published rate multiplied by the fee-unit value for the relevant financial year (Explanatory details).

5. Tax authorities and entities claiming input tax credits. The Note to reg 4 states fees are inclusive of GST, which affects how requesters treat invoices for tax input credits and how the Chief Statistician accounts for GST-inclusive revenue.

6. Legal and compliance advisers. Because the Regulations do not specify procedural details such as quoting, invoicing, payment terms, delivery timelines or waiver criteria, advisers to requesters and to the Chief Statistician’s office will be affected by the need to develop operational processes consistent with the Regulations.

Indirectly, the Regulations can affect the wider market for crime-statistics products. By setting a price for customised work from the official statistics office, the Regulations create a market signal that may alter demand for private-sector data services, internal resourcing decisions by organisations, or the frequency of requests for customised official data. Those effects follow logically from the fixed-price catalogue and hourly billing mechanism (reg 4; Schedule 1), although the Regulations themselves do not model or quantify such market impacts.

The Regulations create a narrow set of statutory duties, rights and discretions.

Duties and obligations set by the instrument

• The Chief Statistician may impose fees for the specified services; if fees are to be charged they must be calculated according to the two-block structure and the fee-unit amounts in Schedule 1 (reg 4(1)-(2); Schedule 1). The duty here is to apply the published rates if a fee is imposed.
• The fee amounts in Schedule 1 are expressed in fee units and must be converted to dollar amounts in accordance with the Monetary Units Act 2004, and rounded to the nearest 10 cents (Explanatory details). That creates a duty to use the statutory conversion and rounding rules when producing an invoice or quote.
• Fees are inclusive of GST (note to reg 4). Administratively this requires invoices and account entries to reflect GST-inclusive amounts as the published amounts are so framed.

Discretions and rights

• The Chief Statistician has a discretion to waive or reduce any fees if the Chief Statistician is satisfied that it is appropriate in the circumstances (reg 5). The Regulations do not prescribe tests, timelines, procedural requirements, publication or appeal rights associated with the exercise of that satisfaction. The discretion is a statutory power held by the Chief Statistician rather than a statutory entitlement that a requester can assert.
• Requesters have the de facto right to request customised services; the Regulations do not prohibit who may seek or receive services. They do, however, allow the Chief Statistician to charge for them.

Matters not specified (practical gaps)

• The Regulations do not set out invoicing procedures, payment terms, deposit or prepayment requirements, refund rules, dispute-resolution mechanisms, or service delivery times. Those omissions mean that operational rights and duties (for example, the right to a written quote, or the duty to pay within a specified term) are not established in the Regulations and will need to be supplied through administrative practice or separate instruments.
• The Regulations do not define objective criteria for waivers or reductions, nor do they create an appeal or review right tied to decisions to charge or to waive charges. The lack of statutory process increases administrative discretion and the potential for variable treatment between applicants.

Express statutory references

• Authorising provision: regulation 2 states that the Regulations are made under section 10 of the Crime Statistics Act 2014. The substantive power to charge therefore rests on that Act as the parent instrument (reg 2).
• Time structure: first 2 hours or part, then subsequent hour or part billing (reg 4(2); Schedule 1).
• Fee-unit mechanism and rounding rules are linked by the Explanatory details to the Monetary Units Act 2004.

In short, the Regulations impose a clear billing framework and create a discretionary waiver power for the Chief Statistician but leave operational details and waiver criteria to administrative processes.

The Regulations contain no express penalty provisions, offence clauses or administrative enforcement mechanisms. There is no monetary penalty, compliance sanction, or specified enforcement procedure contained in the statutory text of these Regulations. The Schedule and Regulations strictly prescribe permissible fees and the basis for calculating them; they do not create offences for charging non-compliant amounts nor do they provide for recovery mechanisms, interest on unpaid fees, or debt-recovery procedures.

Because the instrument is a subordinate regulation made under section 10 of the Crime Statistics Act 2014 (reg 2), enforcement or judicial remedies for non‑compliance with the Regulations would, where necessary, arise from general administrative law principles or from provisions in the parent Act rather than from the Regulations themselves. The Regulations do not identify any statutory right of review, appeal or objection against decisions to impose or waive fees (reg 4; reg 5). Where administrative decisions are made (for example, to waive a fee or not), affected parties would rely on general remedies such as merits review or judicial review only if such remedies are available under other legislation or the parent Act; the Regulations do not provide a bespoke review route.

The absence of penalties or enforcement mechanisms in the text has several practical implications. First, disputes about the correct chargeable amount will be commercial or administrative matters to be resolved between the Chief Statistician’s office and the requester unless another statute confers an enforcement path. Second, there is no statutory prohibition in the Regulations on recovering costs beyond the published rates; however, because the Regulations specify the permitted rates and the mechanism for calculating them, charging outside that framework may expose the Collector to administrative challenge or to constraints under the parent Act. Third, the sole statutory restraint on charging is the set fee-unit schedule and the requirement to convert fee units as required by the Monetary Units Act 2004 (Explanatory details). Finally, because fees are declared inclusive of GST (note to reg 4), taxation compliance and GST accounting obligations remain relevant to both parties.

For an entity seeking to enforce payment (or challenge a charge), the Regulations provide the substantive pricing rules but not the procedural enforcement steps. Entities should therefore expect any enforcement to proceed via contractual, administrative or general statutory mechanisms rather than through penalties embedded in the Regulations themselves.

These Regulations expressly interact with several other legislative instruments, and implicitly interact with general administrative and taxation law.

Express statutory links

• Crime Statistics Act 2014: The Regulations are made under s 10 of the Crime Statistics Act 2014 (reg 2). The parent Act therefore provides the enabling authority; any limits or procedural requirements in that Act constrain how the Chief Statistician may exercise powers under the Regulations. The Regulations do not restate or reproduce provisions of the parent Act.
• Monetary Units Act 2004: Schedule 1 rates are stated in fee units; the Explanatory details instruct that fees are to be calculated by multiplying the number of fee units by the fee‑unit value in accordance with section 7 of the Monetary Units Act 2004. The Explanatory details further state the fee‑unit value for the financial year commencing 1 July 2025 is $16.81, and that the Treasurer sets future values under section 5 of that Act and must publish them in the Government Gazette and a Victorian newspaper before 1 June in the preceding financial year (Explanatory details). Thus, the effective dollar price administered under these Regulations will vary each year in accordance with the Monetary Units Act mechanism.
• Goods and Services Tax and taxation law: The Note to regulation 4 states that fees and charges under this regulation are inclusive of GST. That interacts with the A New Tax System (Goods and Services Tax) Act and with the purchaser’s ability to claim input tax credits; the Regulations do not set out GST accounting but the inclusion of GST in the stated fee affects invoicing and tax treatment.
• Subordinate Legislation Act 1994: The Endnotes state the Regulations will sunset 10 years after making (1 July 2035) pursuant to the Subordinate Legislation Act 1994 (Endnotes 1). That statutory sunset interacts with the lifecycle rules for subordinate instruments.

Implicit interactions and administrative law

• Administrative law and judicial review: The Chief Statistician’s power to waive or reduce fees under reg 5 is discretionary. Where an applicant claims the discretion was exercised unlawfully, general administrative-law remedies (for example, judicial review for jurisdictional error, denial of natural justice or Wednesbury unreasonableness) may be implicated. The Regulations themselves do not supply appeal rights or procedural protections.
• Contract and procurement law: The Regulations do not specify procurement terms, service-level agreements, payment terms or intellectual property arrangements for the outputs supplied. Parties will need to rely on contract law and any specific terms agreed between the requester and the Chief Statistician’s office for such matters.

Practical consequence of these interactions

• The published fee amounts must be converted to dollars using the Monetary Units Act rules, and those dollar figures will be GST-inclusive. The Treasurer’s annual fee‑unit declaration is therefore a binding input to pricing. Requesters and advisers must check the current fee‑unit value before calculating expected fees. The Regulations interact with tax accounting and with general administrative law regimes but do not replicate detailed procedural rules; those must be supplied by administrative practice or other law.

The Regulations’ formal amendment record is empty as at the version date. The Endnotes include a Table of Amendments section (Endnotes 2) and state there are no amendments made to the Crime Statistics (Fees and Charges) Regulations 2025 by statutory rules, subordinate instruments or Acts. The instrument is recorded as made and coming into operation on 1 July 2025 (Endnotes 1; reg 3).

Temporal limits and review mechanisms

• Sunsetting: The Endnotes note that these Regulations will sunset 10 years after the day of making, on 1 July 2035, pursuant to section 5 of the Subordinate Legislation Act 1994 (Endnotes 1). That creates an automatic expiry unless a subsequent instrument renews or replaces the Regulations prior to or on that date.
• Annual price adjustment: Although not an amendment mechanism for the text of the Regulations, the monetary amounts specified in Schedule 1 are expressed as fee units. The Explanatory details explain that the value of a fee unit for subsequent financial years is to be fixed by the Treasurer under section 5 of the Monetary Units Act 2004 and published before 1 June in the preceding financial year. This produces an annual, statutory-linked change to the dollar equivalents of the scheduled fees without amending the Regulation’s text. Any change to the numerical fee units themselves in Schedule 1, or to the structure of billing, would require an amendment to these Regulations.

Practical reading of the amendment record

• At present there is a single version (Version No. 001) dated 1 July 2025. The Regulations were made by the Governor in Council on 1 July 2025 (Endnotes 1). No statutory rule or Act has altered the instrument since making, so precedent and administrative practice will evolve from this baseline text.
• Because the fee-unit to dollar conversion is governed elsewhere, monitoring of fee levels in practice requires attention to both this instrument (for the number of fee units) and to the Treasurer’s declarations under the Monetary Units Act (for the dollar conversion).

In short, the Regulation text is new and unamended; the only recurring adjustment mechanism embedded in the framework is the monetary-unit conversion process that updates dollar rates annually without altering fee-unit quantities. The instrument will expire automatically in 2035 unless action is taken to renew or replace it.

The source material contains no litigation history. The Endnotes and Table of Amendments record that these Regulations were made on 1 July 2025 and that there have been no amendments; they do not cite any cases, judicial decisions, or disputes arising under the Regulations. There are therefore no cases named in the instrument and no reported judicial treatments recorded in the provided text.

Practical implications of no litigation history

• Absence of precedent: Because there are no reported cases, there is no body of judicial interpretation illuminating ambiguities in the text. Points of potential contention,such as the scope of what constitutes “liaison with Victoria Police, relevant agencies or applicable courts”, the proper application of “or part of” in billing, or the proper exercise of the Chief Statistician’s discretion under reg 5,have not been adjudicated in the material provided. That leaves those phrases to administrative interpretation or future judicial review.
• Administrative practice will shape meaning: In the absence of judicial guidance, the Chief Statistician’s office and affected requesters will rely on administrative policy, published guidance, internal charging procedures and precedent established by the office’s own past decisions. Such practice may vary over time and will be a common source of operational guidance where the Regulations are silent.
• Dispute pathways are likely general: Because the Regulations contain no bespoke dispute-resolution or review mechanisms, any legal challenge about the application of the Regulations would proceed by general routes, such as judicial review of administrative decisions or contractual claims, assuming standing and applicable jurisdictional prerequisites are met. The provided text does not identify whether the parent Act (Crime Statistics Act 2014) confers any particular review procedure, so litigants would need to assess other statutory or common-law remedies.
• Low case-law clarity on waiver exercise: Reg 5 gives the Chief Statistician a discretion to waive or reduce fees where satisfied appropriate. Without case law, there is no published judicial yardstick for what constitutes lawful or unlawful exercise of that satisfaction in this context.

For now, legal advisers must treat the Regulations as untested in the courts and should plan for operational and contractual clarity to limit litigation risk where possible. Any future litigation that arises will be the first source of judicial interpretation of these provisions.

The Regulations are short and specific, but several practical traps and points of uncertainty follow directly from the text.

1. Fee-unit pricing requires an external conversion check. Schedule 1 states rates in fee units. The Explanatory details require conversion using the Monetary Units Act 2004 rules and the Treasurer’s published fee‑unit value (Explanatory details). If a requester calculates a dollar figure using the 2025 fee‑unit value ($16.81), they must confirm the correct fee‑unit value for the financial year in question (Explanatory details). Failure to check the current value may produce a material misestimate.

2. Minimum charge mechanics. The first billing block applies to the first two hours or part of the two hours (reg 4(2)(a); Schedule 1). That means a short task of even a few minutes will be billed at the full first‑block amount. Similarly, subsequent hours are billed per "hour or part", so a 15‑minute increment after the first block attracts a full subsequent‑hour charge. These rounding/billing units can substantially increase cost for small or tightly scoped requests.

3. GST inclusion may cause double counting if not accounted for correctly. The Note to reg 4 states fees are inclusive of GST. Requesters expecting an additional GST line or misreading the rates as GST-exclusive may underbudget. Conversely, some institutional procurement systems separate net and GST lines; reconciling system constraints with GST-inclusive stated rates may require special handling.

4. Liaison activities are chargeable. The explicit inclusion of liaison with Victoria Police, other agencies or courts as an example of chargeable work (reg 4(1)(a)(iv)) means time-consuming clearance, permission-seeking, or inter-agency coordination can be billed to the requester. Requesters should anticipate these possible additional costs.

5. Waiver discretion has no statutory criteria. Reg 5 gives the Chief Statistician power to waive or reduce fees "if satisfied that it is appropriate". The Regulations do not require reasons, publication of waiver policy, or appeal rights. Requesters cannot rely on a statutory entitlement to a waiver; they depend on administrative exercise of discretion.

6. No payment or delivery process specified. The Regulations do not set invoicing, payment deadlines, service-level targets, or refund rules. That silence can result in contractual misunderstandings and operational friction unless the Chief Statistician’s office publishes clear procedures.

7. Annual dollar volatility without textual amendment. Because the dollar equivalents depend on the Treasurer’s annual fee‑unit declaration, the dollar cost for an identical fee‑unit schedule may rise each financial year even though Schedule 1 is unchanged. Users who budget across financial years must account for that automatic escalation mechanism.

8. Sunset date. The Regulations will automatically expire on 1 July 2035 (Endnotes 1). Entities planning long-term subscription-style engagements should note that the statutory basis for these particular fee levels has a ten-year horizon unless extended.

9. No cap or maximum charge per engagement. The instrument specifies per-hour rates but imposes no cap on the total hours that may be billed. For extensive customised projects, costs can escalate proportionally to time spent.

10. Invoicing and record-keeping interplay with tax systems. Because the regulations present GST-inclusive fees and rounding to the nearest 10 cents, accounting systems that require net amounts may need manual adjustments to align invoicing with taxation and procurement systems.

Each of these “gotchas” stems directly from what the Regulations include and leave out; they are practical operational risks that parties should address in procurement and contracting practices.

If you or your client intends to request customised services from the Chief Statistician’s office, the Regulations prescribe a small set of compliance steps and several recommended practices derived from gaps in the text.

Required compliance steps (statutory)

1. Budget using fee‑unit conversion. Use the fee units in Schedule 1 and convert them to dollars by multiplying by the fee‑unit value under the Monetary Units Act 2004 (Explanatory details). For the financial year commencing 1 July 2025, the Explanatory details state the fee unit is $16.81; multiply the schedule values by $16.81 and round to the nearest 10 cents (Explanatory details). Note the published schedule and conversion produce GST‑inclusive amounts (note to reg 4).

2. Expect minimum and incremental billing. Plan for the first two hours or part to attract the first-block charge, and for subsequent fractional hours to be billed at the full subsequent-hour rate (reg 4(2); Schedule 1).

3. Assume liaison time is chargeable. If the proposed work requires liaison with Victoria Police, other agencies or courts, include time and cost for that liaison in your budget (reg 4(1)(a)(iv)).

Administrative and contractual best practice (to manage gaps in the Regulations)

1. Request a written quote or fee estimate before commencing work. The Regulations set permitted fees but do not prescribe quoting or invoicing practice. Obtain a written quote that states the fee‑unit conversion used, whether the quote is GST‑inclusive (the Regulations specify fees are GST‑inclusive), and whether the quote is an estimate subject to change with the Treasurer’s fee‑unit declaration for a later financial year.

2. Clarify scope and hours. Define the scope of work precisely and ask for an estimate of expected hours. Because billing is per "hour or part", small increases in scope can lead to discrete jumps in cost.

3. Ask about liaison and third-party costs. Seek confirmation whether time spent in liaison with Victoria Police or other agencies will be included in the published rates or charged separately. The mention of liaison in reg 4(1)(a)(iv) suggests such work is within the chargeable scope; contractually confirm who bears third-party access costs.

4. Seek waiver if eligible and prepare justification. Reg 5 allows waiver or reduction if the Chief Statistician is satisfied it is appropriate. Because the Regulations do not prescribe criteria or process, prepare a focussed waiver request explaining public interest, financial hardship, research merit, or other objective reasons that may persuade the Chief Statistician to exercise discretion in your favour.

5. Reconcile GST treatment with accounting systems. Since the fees are GST‑inclusive, ensure your procurement and accounting systems can accept GST‑inclusive invoices or agree bilaterally how the invoice will be presented to allow input tax-credit claims.

6. Verify the current fee‑unit value ahead of committing. If your engagement crosses a financial-year boundary, check the Treasurer’s published fee‑unit value before finalising budgets; the dollar amount may change without amendment to Schedule 1 (Explanatory details).

7. Negotiate deliverables and timelines. Because the Regulations do not set service-level standards or delivery timelines, include these terms contractually if timing is material to your project.

8. Keep documentary evidence. Where a waiver is sought, or where scope is contested, retain correspondence and quotes. Given the absence of statutory appeal routes in the Regulations, administrative records will be the primary basis for any later review or dispute.

9. Plan for long projects without statutory caps. For extensive analytical engagements, agree a maximum budget or staged milestones to limit exposure to open-ended hourly billing.

10. Account for rounding. The Explanatory details require rounding to the nearest 10 cents. Ensure invoicing systems follow that rule to avoid small reconciliation discrepancies.

Concrete example (2025 pricing, illustrative)

• Using the 2025 fee‑unit value ($16.81), the Schedule’s dollar equivalents for the first 2 hours are approximately: preparation and supply (11.5 fee units) ≈ $193.30 (rounded to nearest 10c); statistical analysis (15.9 fee units) ≈ $267.30 (rounded to nearest 10c). Subsequent hours are approximately $95.80 (5.7 fee units) and $132.80 (7.9 fee units) respectively. These figures are GST‑inclusive per the Note to reg 4 and the Explanatory details. Confirm the Treasurer’s published fee‑unit value if requesting services in a later financial year.

Following these steps will align budgeting and procurement with the Regulations’ mechanics and help manage the procedural gaps left to administrative practice.