Openness and transparency of the legislative work of the parliament

Parliament regularly prepares, updates, and publishes its calendar of legislative work

Analysis of the parliamentary website and/or other official publications of parliament. Checks carried out to confirm whether the parliament provides accurate, up-to-date and clear information about the dates of the upcoming plenary sessions and committee meetings. As a minimum, the calendar should provide full information about the dates and agendas of the next (upcoming) plenary session and all the relevant, planned committee meetings. Random checks carried out by SIGMA experts over several months during the assessment period to confirm and verify the information. If necessary, interviews will be done with parliamentary staff, members of parliament and external partners.

Conclusions of committee meetings are published on the parliament's website

Analysis of information published on the official website of the parliament to check whether the official conclusions of the meetings of standing committees. Information about the latest meetings of the relevant bodies from the last full calendar year (or the latest available) is checked.

Information about the voting results of individual MPs during the plenary sessions are published on the parliament’s website

Review of the parliament’s website to check whether the results of voting of individual members of parliament during the plenary sessions are published and accessible. Information about the voting taken place during the plenary sessions from the last full calendar year (or the latest available) is checked.

Information about the status of all individual draft laws is available from the parliament’s website and it is regularly updated

Analysis of information published on the official website of the parliament to check whether it provides clear and complete information about the parliamentary scrutiny status of each individual draft law included in the parliamentary calendar of the current (or the upcoming) session. Checks are carried out to confirm that for each individual law the website provides clear information about 1) the stage of parliamentary scrutiny (e.g. whether it is at first/second reading, committee stage); 2) whether it has been approved/rejected. If the calendar is found to be not up-to-date and/or information is not available on all registered draft laws, the criterion is considered not to be fulfilled. If the parliament has been in recess during the assessment period, the latest information from the most recent parliamentary session and calendar is checked. Information is further verified based on the interviews and feedback collected from parliament and government administrations, as well as civil society organisations.

The latest version of the draft laws, amendments, opinions and supporting documents are published on the parliament’s website

Review of the parliamentary website to verify that official, latest versions of all registered draft laws, any amendments to those laws proposed during the parliamentary scrutiny, as well as all relevant committee reports, opinions and other supporting materials related to the draft law (including those submitted by the government) are published and accessible to the public. Information about all registered laws for the current (or the latest available) parliamentary session is checked. As a minimum, the following documents should be available for the criterion to be considered fulfilled: 1) the latest official legal text of the draft laws; 2) any proposed amendments; 3) any official opinions and/or reports prepared by the relevant parliamentary committee(s); and 4) opinion of the government on MP-initiated laws (if relevant); as well as 5) all supporting documents submitted by the government (e.g. explanatory notes, regulatory impact assessments and consultation reports, if available). The criterion is considered not to be met if there is evidence of all or some of the information being unavailable for all draft laws registered for parliamentary scrutiny.

Parliament publishes regular reports on its legislative activities (at least annually)

Checks on the website and interviews with parliamentary officials to confirm whether the parliament has a practice of preparing regular reports on its legislative activities. Points are not allocated if the parliament does not publish a report on its legislative activities for the last full calendar year (either a full or partial report). If the parliament did not have any legislative activity during the last full calendar year (e.g. because of political deadlocks or unforeseen factors), checks are carried out on the previous years preceding the last full calendar year. The report must include full information about the legislative and other activities of the parliament during the past period, including information about all draft laws considered (approved, rejected, withdrawn and who initiated them) during the past calendar year/ reporting period.

Perceived openness and transparency of parliamentary law-making (%)

Analysis of survey responses from a representative sample of the population to the following question or statement: “The legislative process, how laws are made in [Parliament/Congress] is open and transparent for the public.” Answer options are: Strongly disagree, Tend to disagree, Neither agree nor disagree, Tend to agree, Strongly agree, Do not know, Prefer not to answer. Points are allocated based on the percentage of respondents who replied “Tend to agree” and “Strongly agree” to the survey question (x): • x < 10% = 0 points. • 10% ≤ x < 90% = linear function. • x ≥ 90% = 4 points.