Perfecting the legal framework for criminal records activities

(Chinhphu.vn) – At the 49th session held this morning (September 5), the National Assembly Standing Committee considered the draft Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Judicial Records.

The National Assembly Standing Committee considers the draft Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Judicial Records.

Institutionalize the Party and State's guidelines and policies on judicial records work .

The Government's report on the draft Law presented by Senior Lieutenant General Nguyen Van Long, Deputy Minister of Public Security , said that after 15 years of implementation, the Law on Judicial Records has achieved many remarkable results.

However, in addition to the achieved results, the implementation process shows that some provisions of the Law on Judicial Records still have problems and inadequacies in the legal basis that need to be amended and supplemented, such as the model of managing the Judicial Records Database at 2 levels has revealed inadequacies, dispersion, lack of concentration, unity, causing waste of resources; the right to request the issuance of Judicial Records Certificate No. 2 is still being abused...

Therefore, the Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Judicial Records was developed to perfect the legal framework, promote the institutionalization of the Party and State's guidelines and policies on judicial records work; effectively apply scientific and technological achievements in the management of the Judicial Records Database towards building, managing and centrally administering the Judicial Records Database system, connecting and synchronizing with the national population data system, overcoming the current fragmentation; create an important basis for implementing the reception of requests and issuance of full-process judicial records in the electronic environment, reforming administrative procedures, creating favorable conditions for people to perform services anytime, anywhere, contributing to the effective implementation of the policy of innovation and national digital transformation, and international integration.

The viewpoint of the Law is to institutionalize the viewpoint of our Party and State on continuing to innovate, reorganize the apparatus of the political system to be streamlined, operate effectively, efficiently and effectively; continue to specify the provisions of the 2013 Constitution on human rights and civil rights, ensuring the consistency and unity of the legal system. Meet the practical requirements of developing e-government, digital government, building a centralized and unified Judicial Records Database, promoting administrative procedure reform. Provide specific regulations, ensure transparency, inheritance and feasibility in practical implementation.

With the above-mentioned purposes and viewpoints, the scope of regulation and subjects of application of the Basic Law are kept the same as the 2009 Law on Judicial Records. In addition, the draft Law amends and supplements 26/57 Articles; abolishes 2/57 Articles of the 2009 Law on Judicial Records; these amended and supplemented provisions aim to ensure the consistency and uniformity of the legal system; resolve existing problems and difficulties in current practice and meet the requirements of state management of judicial records, and provide public services of issuing judicial records from the Ministry of Justice to the Ministry of Public Security in the coming time.

The draft Law dossier is carefully prepared, seriously and in accordance with regulations.

Preliminary examination of the draft Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Judicial Records, the Law and Justice Committee of the National Assembly agreed with the necessity of amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Judicial Records for the reasons stated in the Government's Submission. The draft Law dossier has been carefully and seriously prepared by the Government, in accordance with regulations, and is eligible to be submitted to the National Assembly Standing Committee for consideration and decision by the National Assembly according to the shortened procedures.

The Standing Committee of the Judicial Records Committee found that the provisions of the draft Law closely followed and specified the requirements and directions of the Politburo and the Secretariat on administrative procedure reform, promoting digital transformation, applying science and technology, innovation in the operations of agencies in the political system, and improving the quality of public services; and believed that with the scope of amendments as proposed by the Government, the proposed name of the draft Law as the Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Judicial Records is appropriate.

Regarding the right to request information on criminal records (Article 7), the Standing Committee of the People's Procuracy believes that all socio-political organizations are currently arranged under the Vietnam Fatherland Front, so continuing to stipulate that socio-political organizations are required to provide information on criminal records is not really suitable for the current organizational model of the Vietnam Fatherland Front and mass organizations, but only the agencies of the Vietnam Fatherland Front Committees at all levels should be allowed to do this. Therefore, it is recommended to continue reviewing and adjusting the regulations on agencies with the right to request competent agencies to issue criminal records to provide criminal records information in the draft Law to ensure that it is suitable for the nature, tasks and practical requirements.

Regarding the criminal record certificate (Article 41), to overcome the abuse of the request for issuance of Criminal Record Certificate No. 1 and Criminal Record Certificate No. 2, the Standing Committee of the People's Procuracy proposes to study and supplement the draft Law with principles on cases that are required to be issued with a criminal record certificate; at the same time, continue to consider and revise the provisions on the purpose of managing criminal records in Clause 4, Article 3 of the draft Law to suit the practical situation and the policy of reducing and simplifying administrative procedures.

The Standing Committee of the People's Court also believes that it is necessary to continue to maintain the regulation on issuing Criminal Record Certificate No. 2 to individuals so that they can know the content of their criminal records. However, to limit the abuse of the request for issuance of Criminal Record Certificate No. 2, it is proposed to study and supplement the draft Law with a provision that strictly prohibits agencies, organizations, and units from requiring individuals to provide Criminal Record Certificate No. 2 when carrying out regular administrative procedures or in civil and labor relations...

Regarding the order, procedures, and time limit for issuing criminal records (Articles 45, 46, and 47), the Standing Committee of the People's Court proposed to continue reviewing the authority of the agency that establishes criminal records, the agency that receives requests for criminal records, and the agency that issues criminal records in the draft Law to ensure coordination and consistency in order and procedures, consistent with the nature and digital transformation capacity of the system to reduce the time for processing records, requirements for criminal records, and further simplify administrative procedures.

Regarding the implementation provisions, the Government's Submission and the draft Law have not specified the specific time when the Law takes effect. The Standing Committee of the Law on Judicial Conduct proposes that the draft Law take effect from March 1, 2026 so that relevant agencies have time to review and complete detailed regulations, implementation instructions, and other necessary tasks to ensure that the provisions of the Law are soon put into practice.

Speaking at the meeting, the majority of opinions of the National Assembly Standing Committee agreed to promulgate the draft Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Judicial Records; stating that the basic contents are consistent with practical requirements, meeting the requirements set forth on innovation of organizational apparatus, innovation of management methods...

After listening to the opinions of the members of the National Assembly Standing Committee, concluding on this content, Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Nguyen Khac Dinh stated that the National Assembly Standing Committee acknowledged the efforts and urgency of the drafting agency and the reviewing agency; the draft law dossier ensures full conditions to be submitted to the National Assembly for comments and approval at the 10th session according to the shortened procedures.

The Vice Chairman of the National Assembly requested the Government to urgently complete the draft law, paying attention to continuing to review and ensure the consistency of this law with related laws and the Party's policies on the organization and apparatus arrangement in the political system. At the same time, it must meet the requirements of international integration and facilitate people in conducting transactions with foreign countries...

The Committee on Law and Justice shall closely coordinate with the drafting agency to complete the dossier and conduct an official review of the draft law to report to the National Assembly as prescribed.

Nguyen Hoang

Source: https://baochinhphu.vn/hoan-thien-hanh-lang-phap-ly-doi-voi-hoat-dong-ly-lich-tu-phap-102250905100904798.htm