Lawmakers step up document reviews

China’s top legislature has stepped up the review of normative documents involving environmental protection, administrative punishment and family planning policy this year to ensure they do not contradict the Constitution and laws.

Conducting more reviews in the three fields follows the work agenda of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, the country’s top legislature, and also ensures better implementation of the Yangtze River Protection Law, the revised Administrative Penalty Law and the amended Population and Family Planning Law, Shen Chunyao, director of the NPC Standing Committee’s Legislative Affairs Commission, told lawmakers on Tuesday.

Since the Yangtze River Protection Law was passed in December last year, “we’ve begun going through regulations and rules concerning the basin, finding 322 documents should be revised or eliminated,” he said.

Eighteen have been amended so far and 41 have been abolished, Shen added.

The commission’s review also discovered 4,012 documents that were not consistent with the Administrative Penalty Law and 3,632 that contradicted the Population and Family Planning Law, he said.

Seventy-three problematic documents involving the two laws have been amended, and 714 have been abolished, Shen said.

“We also suggested relevant departments strengthen the review of normative documents made by the Communist Party of China regarding family planning, putting an end to improper ones at an appropriate time,” he added.

While taking the initiative to intensify the review of documents in the three fields, he said the commission had also paid close attention to suggestions from the public.

Shen said the commission has received 6,339 suggestions from people and organizations this year, with 5,065 of them made via its online platform.

“We studied the documents that the public believed to be problematic and asked to be reviewed, and then coordinated with relevant agencies to decide whether to abolish or amend them,” he said. “The review results were sent back to the residents and the organizations in a timely manner.”

The commission will further step up Constitution-related reviews next year to ensure normative documents are consistent with the fundamental law, Shen said, adding that the NPC Standing Committee will correct or cancel improper content as necessary.