Regulations on the Work Concerning Special Committees of the Shanghai Municipal People's Congress were adopted at the 25^th Session of the Standing Committee of the 15^th Shanghai Municipal People’s Congress on September 25, 2020, and are hereby promulgated. They shall be effective as of October 1, 2020.

Standing Committee of Shanghai Municipal People’s Congress

September 25, 2020

 

Regulations on the Work Concerning Special Committees of Shanghai Municipal People's Congress

(Adopted at the 25^th Session of the Standing Committee of the 15^th Shanghai Municipal People’s Congress on September 25, 2020)

 

Chapter I  General Provisions

 

Article 1 With a view to further strengthening and improving the work of special committees of Shanghai Municipal People's Congress (hereinafter referred to as the special committees), ensuring that special committees shall perform responsibilities and duties in line with laws and enhancing performance capabilities of special committees, these Regulations are formulated in light of the reality of the work of special committees, and in accordance with the Organization Law of the People's Republic of China for Local People's Congresses at All Levels and Local People's Governments at All Levels and other relevant laws and rules.

Article 2 Special committees refer to the permanent institutions of Shanghai Municipal People's Congress, subject to the leadership of Shanghai Municipal People's Congress, and the leadership of the Standing Committee of Shanghai Municipal People's Congress when the People's Congress is not in session.

Article 3 Adhering to and improving the system of people’s congress, adhering to the organic unity of the leadership of the Communist Party of China, people as masters of the country and rule of law, the work of special committees shall thoroughly implement Xi Jinping’s Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, and play a positive role in ensuring Shanghai Municipal People's Congress and its Standing Committee fully perform duties in accordance with the law.

Article 4 Shanghai Municipal People's Congress shall establish the legislative affairs committee, the supervision and judicial affairs committee, the financial and economic affairs committee, the education, science, culture and public health committee, the city construction and environmental protection committee, the overseas Chinese, ethnic and religious affairs committee, the foreign affairs committee, the agricultural and rural affairs committee, the social development committee and other special committees which Shanghai Municipal People's Congress deems as necessary. The establishment, merger, dissolution and name modification of any special committee shall be decided by Shanghai Municipal People's Congress.

Article 5 Special Committees shall apply the principle of democratic centralism, give full play to democracy and collectively exercise functions and powers in accordance with the law.

Article 6 The Party Leadership Group of the Communist Party of China in the Standing Committee of the Shanghai Municipal People's Congress shall establish branches in special committees. Branches in special committees shall execute well the policy decisions and plans of the CPC Central Committee and the Shanghai Municipal Committee of the CPC, comply with the requirements of the party branch in the Standing Committee of the Shanghai Municipal People's Congress, fulfill the principal responsibilities for the Party's self-supervision and self-governance, and play a leading role in guiding the direction, managing the overall situation and ensuring the implementation of the work of Special Committees.

 

Chapter II  Institutional Framework

 

Article 7 The members of a special committee shall include a chairman, several vice chairmen and other members. A special committee shall include generally not less than ten members, and the number of full-time members shall be increased appropriately.

Among the members of the special committees, there should be an appropriate proportion of professionals in this field or related fields and professionals familiar with the system of people's congresses.The legislative affairs committee shall include full-time members from other special committees as part-time members.

Article 8 The candidates for the chairman, vice chairmen and members of a special committee shall be nominated by the presidium of Shanghai Municipal People's Congress from the deputies and be subject to the approval of the People's Congress. When the people's congress is not in session, the standing committee of Shanghai Municipal People's Congress may appoint or dismiss some vice chairmen or members of special committees, the nomination concerned shall be made at the directors’ meeting of the standing committee of Shanghai Municipal People's Congress and shall be approved at the meeting of the standing committee.

Vacancies in special committees shall be filled in a timely manner.

Article 9 The chairman of a special committee presides over the committee meeting, direct the work of committee, leads the implementation of decisions made by the committee meeting. The vice chairmen and members of a special committee shall carry out relevant work in accordance with their respective duties.

When the position of chairman is vacant or the chairman fails to direct the work of special committee as a result of poor health conditions or other reasons, the directors’ meeting of the standing committee of Shanghai Municipal People's Congress shall appoint one of the full-time vice chairmen of the special committee to direct the work temporarily.

Article 10 There are comprehensive offices under the special committee, and relevant specialized offices can be set up according to the needs in work, and be equipped with legislative and other professional workforce.

Working under the direction of the special committee, the special committee's administrative office serves as a good counselor and assistant for the special committee to perform its duties in accordance with the law, and provides quality service to guarantee its work.

 

Chapter III  Duties and Responsibilities

 

Article 11 A special committee shall, according to law, submit to Shanghai Municipal People's Congress or the standing committee of Shanghai Municipal People's Congress bills and proposals concerning issues related to the special committee within the scope of the functions and powers of the People's Congress and its standing committee, and deliberate on bills and proposals made by the presidium of Shanghai Municipal People's Congress or the directors' meeting of the standing committee and submit reports.

Article 12 A special committee shall submit five-year legislation plans and recommendations for annual legislation programs related to the special committee within the scope of the functions and powers of Shanghai Municipal People's Congress and its standing committee and, organize the drafting of local rules that are comprehensive, general and fundamental or of other importance, and participate in the drafting of local rules of related organizations in advance.

A special committee shall deliberate on bills of local rules related to the special committee and offer opinions upon the deliberation. Based on the deliberation opinions offered by deputies of the people's congress or members of the standing committee as well as relevant special committees and the opinions offered by all parties concerned, the legislative affairs committee shall conduct unified deliberation on local rules, and put forward a report on the results of the deliberation, the revised draft of the rules, the report on the revision and the voting draft of the draft rules in accordance with the provisions.

Article 13 A special committee shall submit suggestions for annual supervision related to the special committee within the scope of the functions and powers of Shanghai Municipal People's Congress and its standing committee, assist the standing committee to hear and deliberate on special work reports, organize and implement the inspection and inquiry of law enforcement, collect and sort out the deliberation opinions of the meeting of the standing committee and conduct ensuing supervision at the request of the standing committee.

A special committee shall, in accordance with the decision made by the presidium of Shanghai Municipal People's Congress or the directors’ meeting of its standing committee, listen to the replies of the organs concerned to the relevant questions and submit a report on the replies.

A special committee shall review normative documents related to the special committee and put forward written review opinions.

Article 14 The financial and economic affairs committee and relevant special committees shall supervise, research and put forward opinions on the formulation of a five-year plan for national economy and social development and its mid-term assessment, plans for national economy and social development, budgetary expenditure and plans and the management of state-owned assets, etc.

The financial and economic affairs committee shall, in accordance with the provisions, conduct preliminary review on reports on the implementation of the plan for national economy and social development and draft plans, draft plans for national economy and social development, reports on budgetary expenditure and draft budgetary plans, draft budgetary plans, proposals for preliminary adjustment of five-year plans for national economy and social development, annual plans for national economy and social development, proposals for preliminary budgetary adjustment and draft final accounts, and issue preliminary review opinions and review reports.

A special committee shall participate in the budget review and supervision and audit and rectification work, carry out investigation and research on key expenditures, financial fund arrangement, use and performance management of major projects in departments or fields related to the committee, and supervise relevant departments in policy implementation and work promotion.

Article 15 A special committee shall put forward suggestions for annual discussion on major issues related to the special committee within the scope of functions and powers of Shanghai Municipal People's Congress and its standing committee, formulate its deliberation reports or research reports on significant issues related to the special committee as assigned by the standing committee of Shanghai Municipal People's Congress, and, entrusted by the standing committee, to hear reports on major issues related to the committee.

Article 16 A special committee shall enhance its connection with the standing committee of Shanghai Municipal People's Congress, improve the mechanism for collecting opinions from deputies and other mechanisms, support and guarantee deputies to perform their duties according to law, provide deputies with services in relation to their proposals, suggestions, criticism and opinions about the work of the special committee, deal with deputies' suggestions, criticism and opinions received by the special committee and respond to the deputies, and, at the request of the standing committee of Shanghai Municipal People's Congress and its directors’ meeting, follow up and supervise the process of highlighted suggestions, criticism and opinions related to the work of the special committee from deputies.

Article 17 A special committee shall investigate and study the issues related to the committee within the scope of functions and powers of Shanghai Municipal People's Congress and its standing committee, and put forward suggestions.

Article 18 A special committee shall strengthen their working contacts with relevant special committees of the National People’s Congress, organize discussions on the draft laws submitted for comments by the relevant special committees of the National People's Congress and relevant agencies of the standing committee of the National People’s Congress to put forward suggestions for amendment and assist the standing committee and relevant committees of the National People’s Congress to complete tasks in Shanghai, including but not limited to inspection on law enforcement or investigation.

A special committee shall enhance its connection with relevant special committees of people's congresses of other provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government, and improve the synergy among special committees of people's congresses of municipalities and provinces in the region of the Yangtze River Delta.

A special committee shall strengthen its collaboration with the operative divisions of the special committees and the standing committees of people's congress of various districts, so as to form a joint force in the work of legislation, supervision and representation, etc.

Article 19 A special committee shall report its work in writing to Shanghai Municipal People's Congress, and undertake other tasks assigned by Shanghai Municipal People's Congress and its standing committee.

 

Chapter IV  Rules of Procedure

 

Article 20 A special committee shall discuss and decide issues at meetings of the special committee.

Article 21 A special committee shall convene special committee meetings in accordance with its duties and needs in work. Meetings of a special committee shall be convened and conducted by the chairman or the vice chairmen appointed by the chairman.

Members of the special committee shall be informed of the agenda, date and place of the meeting in advance, and relevant materials shall be delivered at the same time, unless it is under special circumstances.

Article 22 A special committee meeting shall be held only when more than half of all its members are present. If a member is unable to attend the meeting of the special committee for some reason, he or she shall go through the leave of absence procedure.

Decisions made at the special committee meeting shall be approved by more than half of its members.

Article 23 When the special committee holds a meeting, it may invite deputies of the Municipal People's Congress, persons in charge of relevant departments or relevant personnel to attend the meeting as nonvoting delegates as required.

When deliberating on bills and discussing issues, the special committee may request the Shanghai Municipal People's Government, Shanghai Municipal Supervision Committee, Shanghai High People's Court or Shanghai Municipal People's Procuratorate to send personnel to the meeting to listen to opinions and answer questions.

Article 24 A special committee shall establish and improve the administrative meeting system in order to research and handle the specific work of the special committee. An administrative meeting shall be convened and conducted by the chairman of the special committee or the vice chairman appointed by the chairman, and full-time members, relevant part-time members and heads of subordinate offices shall attend the meeting.

 

Chapter V  Capacity Enhancement

 

Article 25 The standing committee of Shanghai Municipal People's Congress shall enhance special committees' capacity for duty performance by adopting various effective measures, such as enhancing the work support for the duty performance of special committees and duty performance capacities of members of special committees, organizing training about laws and other expertise and establishing a commendation mechanism for members of special committees for excellent performance.

Article 26 The directors’ meeting of the standing committee of Shanghai Municipal People's Congress shall direct and coordinate the daily work of special committees, and hear and discuss work reports of special committees.

With regard to major projects which involve multiple fields and various departments, relate to the fields of several special committees and require coordination, administrative offices of the standing committee shall follow directions of the directors’ meeting and conduct researches to formulate opinions of coordination, and provide support for the synergy among relevant special committees. Problems in the synergy shall, if necessary, be submitted by administrative offices to the secretary-general of the standing committee for coordination.

Article 27 A special committee shall improve its relevant workflows to optimize the efficiency of its work and standardize its work.

Operative divisions and administrative offices of the standing committee of Shanghai Municipal People's Congress shall positively support special committees to perform duties according to law.

Article 28 A special committee shall give full play to the role of its members and improve the mechanism for members to participate in the work of special committees when the people's congress is not in session.

Members of a special committee shall actively participate in the work of the standing committee and special committees of Shanghai Municipal People's Congress when the people's congress is not in session.

Members of a special committee shall study theories in depth, have a full understanding of the Constitution and other laws, master the expertise necessary for duty performance, enhance the awareness and capacity for duty performance.

Article 29 Part-time members of a special committee shall balance the duty of the special committee and other duties, and prioritize the duty of the special committee. The employers of the part-time members shall support him/her in performing duties as a member of the special committee, and provide supports and assistance for his/her research, investigation and participation in the work of legislation and supervision, and may, on the basis of the needs for his/her duty performance and the reality of the body, confer corresponding power on him/her by various measures such as setting up studios.

Article 30 A special committee shall establish the deputy liaison mechanism, assemble special panels for deputies and organize deputies to participate in legislation, supervision and other work in an orderly way.

Article 31 A special committee may establish an expert consultation mechanism by hiring experts in relevant fields to provide the special committee with professional support to perform duties according to law.

 

Chapter VI  Supplementary Provisions

 

Article 32 These regulations shall be effective as of October 1, 2020.