Improvement in legislative drafting
Investment in quality of legislative drafting
The Ministry of the Interior is responsible for preparing statutes (acts and decrees) in its sector in accordance with the Government Programme, the government legislative agenda and the Ministry’s own legislative agenda.
The Ministry’s legislative agenda includes information on ongoing and future national legislative projects, EU legislative projects and on the preparation of treaties.
Improvement in quality of legislative drafting
The Ministry has focused on improving the quality of legislative drafting for many years. Every year the Ministry sets common targets for this as well as specific targets for each department. Special emphasis is placed on fundamental and human rights, good practice for the legislative drafting process, systematic planning, transparency, clear communication and the promotion of public participation.
The heads of the Ministry follow closely the progress of acts and decrees and their quality. For example they are followed in the Ministry’s management group, departmental follow-up meetings chaired by the Permanent Secretary as well as in performance discussions held between the Permanent Secretary and Directors-General. In addition, the success of the most important projects is assessed in accordance with the Ministry’s own evaluation system after the project has been completed.
The quality of legislative drafting is also being improved by maintaining and further developing the competence of the personnel with the help of internal legislative drafting training and guidelines. The Ministry’s Legal Affairs Unit, the development group for legislative drafting and the network of legislative drafting assistants provide information and support to those who draft legislation with regard to the legal and technical issues.
Transparency of drafting and public consultations
The Ministry puts emphasis on transparency of legislative drafting and possibilities of citizens, NGOs and other stakeholders to participate in and to have an influence on the legislative drafting process. Efforts are being made to increase proactive consultations and interaction. In the past few years, new forms of communication and consultation have been introduced along with the traditional consultation process. In addition, measures to support transparency are being further developed.
The Ministry’s website and the Government Project Register (HARE) provide up-to-date information on ongoing legislative proposals. On the website, citizens, organisations and other stakeholders can subscribe to press releases by e-mail regarding the progress of specific legislative projects as well as give feedback on the projects.