Dic: in place (one of its meanings)

• Similar legislation is already in place in Wales.
• Certainly there are plans in place for a response to an attack.
• The new building code will replace the rules that are currently in place.

1. PHRASE : v-link PHR, PHR after v | If something such as a law, a policy, or an administrative structure is in place, it is working or able to be used.
2. (1) ready for use. Related vocabulary: at hand | (2) now in effect or being used.

cf.

• The Bank of England's motivation for holding the pound in place was purely political (based as it was on the U.K.'s commitment to the other European countries in the ERM), not a recognition of the demands of the British economy.

... Cobuild, http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/in+place