Reducing gaps and increasing efficiency in handling small environmental violations

National Assembly Chairman Tran Thanh Man speaks at the meeting

Focus on amending and supplementing regulations on entities exercising authority to conduct inspection activities.

Briefly presenting the Draft Ordinance, Deputy Minister of Public Security Nguyen Van Long stated that the draft Ordinance consists of 2 articles. In particular, amend and supplement Clause 5, Article 7 (Duties and powers of the Environmental Police) in the direction of: removing the phrase "Chief of Police of districts, towns, provincial cities and equivalent administrative units"; at the same time, adding the phrase "Chief of Police of communes, wards, special zones, police stations" so that the Chief of Police of communes, wards, special zones, and police stations has the authority to inspect compliance with the law on environment, resources, and food safety.

Vice Chairman of the National Assembly , Senior Lieutenant General Tran Quang Phuong chaired the meeting.

Amend the name of Article 8 and the provisions of Article 8 (Organization of the Environmental Police). Specifically, replace the phrase "Organization of the Environmental Police" with the phrase "Police Force for Prevention and Control of Environmental Crimes" and amend the provisions of Article 8 to: "1. People's Public Security units with specialized functions and tasks of preventing and controlling environmental crimes; 2. Officers, non-commissioned officers, and soldiers of People's Public Security units with specialized functions and tasks of preventing and controlling environmental crimes; 3. Officers, non-commissioned officers, and soldiers of People's Public Security are assigned to directly take charge of, command, and carry out environmental crime prevention and control work at commune, ward, special zone, and police stations" to comply with the requirements of Resolution No. 66-NQ/TW.

Deputy Minister of Public Security Nguyen Van Long briefly presented the Draft Ordinance.

In the summary report on the review of the draft Ordinance, Chairman of the National Defense, Security and Foreign Affairs Committee, Senior Lieutenant General Le Tan Toi stated that the Committee agreed on the necessity of issuing an Ordinance amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Ordinance on Environmental Police for the reasons stated in the Government's Submission.

The Committee also agreed with the scope of amendments and supplements to the draft Ordinance, focusing on amending and supplementing regulations on the subject exercising the authority to conduct activities to inspect the law compliance of agencies, organizations and individuals; regulations directly related to the current arrangement of the state apparatus; and on amending the name of the force to "Police for preventing and combating environmental crimes" to ensure compliance with current legal regulations.

Chairman of the National Defense, Security and Foreign Affairs Committee, Senior Lieutenant General Le Tan Toi presented a summary report on the review of the draft Ordinance.

In addition, there are some opinions suggesting to keep the name of the force as "Environmental Police" or change it to "Police for prevention and control of crimes related to natural resources, environment and food safety" or "Environmental Protection Police"; at the same time, it is proposed to name the Ordinance as "Environmental Police Ordinance (amended)" or "Police Ordinance for prevention and control of crimes related to environment" or "Environmental Protection Police Ordinance", because the number of amended and supplemented articles is more than half of the total number of articles of the current Ordinance.

Ensure organizational synchronization with the new model

Commenting at the meeting, National Assembly Chairman Tran Thanh Man stated that the Ordinance project is a very urgent content in the current conditions, directly responding to the requirements of environmental protection in the context of the complicated and sophisticated violations of environmental laws, seriously affecting people's health, sustainable development and non-traditional security. People want to amend the Ordinance so that the authorities can seriously and systematically implement it, protecting the living environment nationwide.

The National Assembly Chairman noted that the amendment to the Ordinance must ensure synchronization of the apparatus organization with the new model, such as: adding regulations on transferring authority; amending articles so that environmental police are directly under the commune-level police, focusing on local patrols to reduce gaps and increase the effectiveness of handling small-scale violations.

The National Assembly Chairman also requested that it is necessary to expand the authority over new technologies and inter-sectoral coordination in handling environmental issues such as: having digital technology, sensors, satellite data for real-time monitoring; coordinating with the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment to handle pollution, coordinating with the Ministry of Health in ensuring food safety, coordinating with customs in preventing waste smuggling...

At the same time, the Ordinance project needs to emphasize strengthening prevention and the role of the community and the people. Along with that, improving the regime and policies to increase funding, providing in-depth training on environmental law and digital skills, supplementing internal control mechanisms; preventing and combating corruption and negativity; measuring effectiveness and periodically evaluating to have annual reports on the number of cases handled, pollution reduction rate...

“This Ordinance is a very important step forward in the Vietnamese legal system, which needs to be amended promptly to suit the country's development conditions in the 2026-2030 period, economic growth without affecting the living environment,” the National Assembly Chairman emphasized.

In the spirit of absorbing the opinions of the National Assembly Standing Committee and the opinions of the examining agency, the National Assembly Chairman requested that the Ministry of Public Security urgently complete the draft Ordinance and soon submit it to the National Assembly Chairman for signature to promulgate and implement immediately.

At the meeting, with 100% of the members of the National Assembly Standing Committee voting in favor, the National Assembly Standing Committee approved in principle the contents of the draft Ordinance amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Ordinance on Environmental Police.

Source: https://daibieunhandan.vn/giam-khoang-trong-tang-hieu-qua-xu-ly-vi-pham-nho-le-ve-moi-truong-10398019.html