Access and Reuse of Documents and Administrative Information

Law nº 10/X/2022 was published on March 16th, which regulates the access and reuse of administrative documents and administrative information.

This Law embodies the materialization of a principle constitutionally enshrined in article 245.º al. d), of the CRCV, which is the principle of the open file and applies to sovereign bodies and State bodies that are part of the Public Administration, to other State bodies insofar as they exercise materially administrative functions, to bodies of public institutes of entities independent administrative bodies and public associations and foundations, bodies of public companies, bodies of local authorities, inter-municipal bodies and any other local public associations and federations, bodies of municipal companies, associations or foundations governed by private law, bodies responsible for managing public archives and entities in the exercise of materially administrative or public authority functions.

It establishes the procedures and the way in which a citizen or an entity can request access to documents, as well as the documents that can be accessed, thus representing a reinforcement of transparency mechanisms.

It will allow any and all citizens, without justifying their interest, to have access and reuse documents contained in the archives, documents and administrative information, which includes the rights of reproduction consultation and information about their existence and content.

It allows and establishes that the Administration must actively provide and share on its websites certain management tools, namely budgets, activity plans, activity reports, normative orders, contracts, among others.

ACCESS:

The request for access is requested in writing through a request that contains essential elements for the identification of the applicant, the entity has a period of 15 days to communicate the date, place and way to carry out the consultation, communicate the reasons for refusal, It is understood that cases of refusal are exhaustively provided for in the Law.

REUSE:

All administrative documents whose access is authorized can be reused, the reuse made available through the internet does not depend on authorization from the entity that holds them, except when there is an indication to the contrary or if it is clear to any recipient that the document is protected by copyright or related rights, only in the other cases will it depend on authorization and the request for reuse is also requested in writing through an application.

For the reply to the request for reuse of documents, the same procedures established for the reply to the access request are adopted.

Law nº 10/X/2022, of 16 May, will enter into force on 16 August 2022.