Completing regulations on recognizing communes that meet legal access standards

(Chinhphu.vn) - On the morning of August 15, in Thai Nguyen province, the Department of Legal Dissemination, Education and Legal Aid, Ministry of Justice organized a seminar on "Improving the institution on assessing and recognizing communes meeting legal access standards and proposing legal access criteria in the National Criteria for New Rural Areas for the period 2026-2030".

Scene of the Seminar. Photo: VGP/DA

According to the Department of Legal Dissemination, Education and Legal Aid, in order to perfect the institution on assessment and recognition of communes meeting legal access standards to meet the requirements of the new situation, on August 4, 2025, the Prime Minister signed and issued Decision No. 27/2025/QD-TTg regulating communes, wards and special zones meeting legal access standards. The Ministry of Justice has also drafted a Circular guiding the implementation of Decision No. 27/2025/QD-TTg to stipulate the content, level of achievement of criteria, indicators of legal access and records and forms for assessment and recognition of communes meeting legal access standards.

At the same time, the National Target Program for New Rural Areas for the 2021-2025 period has expired and the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment is currently coordinating with ministries and branches to urgently develop a draft of the National Target Program for New Rural Areas for the 2026-2030 period.

The seminar was organized with the aim of consulting with officials and civil servants who advise on this work at the local level to ensure the practicality, scientificity , ease of implementation, feasibility, and substance of the legal access criteria in the draft Circular on legal access standards and the draft "legal access" criteria in the National Target Program for New Rural Areas for the period 2026-2030.

Many new points in regulations on assessment and recognition of communes meeting legal access standards

Speaking at the Seminar, Dr. Ngo Quynh Hoa, Deputy Director of the Department of Legal Dissemination, Education and Legal Aid, said that one of the important new points in Decision No. 27/2025/QD-TTg is that the criteria for accessing the law are stipulated in a streamlined manner, including 03 criteria and 14 component indicators, focusing on areas under the management of the judiciary.

Dr. Ngo Quynh Hoa, Deputy Director of the Department of Legal Dissemination, Education and Legal Aid, shared about important new points in Decision No. 27/2025/QD-TTg. Photo: VGP/DA

The content and level of achievement of each legal access indicator are stipulated in the draft Circular of the Ministry of Justice in the direction of maximum quantification, not stipulating general, qualitative indicators or those already stipulated in other sets of criteria and standards. In which, most of the indicators are determined by the level of achievement in percentage (not stipulating the scoring method as in the previous Circular No. 09/2021/TT-BTP). Thereby, it aims to contribute to simplifying and meeting practical requirements.

In particular, implementing the policy of promoting decentralization to localities, creating flexibility in organizing assessment and recognition of communes meeting legal access standards, Decision No. 27/2025/QD-TTg also delegated to the provincial People's Committee the task of issuing guidance on documents proving the level of achievement of legal access criteria and indicators, assessment time, internal procedures, and electronic procedures to carry out assessment and recognition of communes meeting legal access standards.

Delegates attending the Seminar highly appreciated the content of the draft Circular, which has quantified the criteria and indicators of legal access to the maximum extent as well as specified the forms in a scientific manner to help evaluate and recognize legal access objectively and substantially.

However, due to the large workload at the commune level, the authority of the Chairman of the People's Committee at the commune level has been expanded much more than before, but the staff and civil servants have not yet met the requirements of the task, some delegates proposed that the Ministry of Justice consider reducing the level of meeting the standards of the criteria and indicators currently prescribed at the maximum rate; at the same time, the Ministry of Justice should soon develop software to assess and recognize communes meeting legal access standards to meet the time limit for appraising dossiers requesting recognition of communes meeting legal access standards of 10 days in Decision No. 27/2025/QD-TTg and the current Government No.

Ms. Vu Thi Nhu Trang, Deputy Director of the Department of Justice of Tuyen Quang province, proposed to consider classifying commune groups to determine the level of achievement of criteria such as grassroots mediation, dissemination and education of law to create conditions for communes in difficult areas to meet the standards of legal access.

Continue to implement the "legal access" criterion in the National Target Program for New Rural Areas for the period 2026-2030

Ms. Hoang Thu Chung, Deputy Director of the Department of Justice of Thai Nguyen province, said that continuing to implement the criteria of legal access in new rural construction is completely appropriate, necessary and of great significance, contributing to improving the quality of operations of grassroots governments, enhancing people's trust in the legal system and public authorities, as well as promoting the administrative reform process, towards building an honest, creative, active Government serving the people and businesses.

Delegates share opinions at the Dialogue. Photo: VGP/DA

Access to the law is not only a technical criterion in building new rural areas, but also a manifestation of respecting and protecting human rights, reflecting the nature of the socialist rule of law state. For this criterion to be truly effective, it requires the support of the entire political system, with the core role of the judiciary.

Agreeing with the viewpoint of the representative of the Department of Justice of Thai Nguyen province, Ms. Dinh Thi Hue, Deputy Head of the Department of Dissemination, Legal Education and Law Enforcement Monitoring of the Department of Justice of Dien Bien province proposed to continue implementing the criteria for legal access in the National Criteria for New Rural Areas for the period 2026-2030 in a focused, simple, clear and easy-to-implement direction. It is necessary to supplement the mechanism for inspection and supervision of the implementation of the criteria for legal access at the grassroots level, avoiding the situation of formal assessment, doing it for the sake of it, implementing it for the sake of it...

At the same time, strengthen the organization of specialized training courses, foster knowledge and skills for civil servants assigned to advise, monitor and evaluate the criteria and indicators of legal access to better perform assigned tasks.

Concluding the Seminar, Dr. Ngo Quynh Hoa suggested that localities have the responsibility to study and issue documents assigned in Decision No. 27/2025/QD-TTg to guide and organize the implementation of this work locally to ensure effectiveness, substance, and ensure people's right to access the law in the context of building a socialist rule-of-law state according to Resolution No. 27-NQ/TW dated November 9, 2022 of the 13th Party Central Committee on continuing to build and perfect the rule-of-law state in the new period, as well as the requirement to build a culture of law compliance in Resolution No. 66-NQ/TW dated April 30, 2025 of the Politburo on innovating the work of building and enforcing laws to meet the requirements of national development in the new era.

Dieu Anh

Source: https://baochinhphu.vn/hoan-thien-quy-dinh-cong-nhan-cap-xa-dat-chuan-tiep-can-phap-luat-102250815183110287.htm