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Prior public consultation on the "Preliminary Draft Law on the Institutionalization of Public Policy Evaluation in the General Administration of the State."

Deadline: until 17/06/2021

Procedure: Closed Participation from May 17 to June 17, 2021.

In accordance with the provisions of articles 133 of Law 39/2015, of 1 October, of the Common Administrative Procedure of the Public Administrations and 26.2 of Law 50/1997, of 27 November, of the Government, as well as in Order PRE/1590/2016, of 3 October, by which is published the Agreement of the Council of Ministers of 30 September 2016, by which instructions are issued to enable public participation in the process of elaboration of regulations through the web portals of the ministerial departments is convened, prior to the elaboration of the rule of reference, a public consultation that will be considered

  • The problems that are intended to be solved with the initiative.
  • The need and opportunity for its approval.
  • The objectives of the standard.
  • The possible alternative regulatory and non-regulatory solutions.

Any interested parties may participate by sending their contributions to the email address consulta.evaluacion@correo.gob.es until June 17, 2021.

Summary note. Prior public consultation on the "Preliminary Draft Law on the Institutionalization of Public Policy Evaluation in the General Administration of the State". (PDF · 176 KB)

Both the European Union and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) insist on the need to strengthen the institutionalisation of evaluation, noting in their recommendations in this regard the importance of establishing a regulatory framework from the central level of government that frames the circumstances and characteristics that public policy evaluation must have in order to meet its objective of serving as an informed decision-making tool, contributing to transparency, improving the use of public resources, informing citizens and accountability and, ultimately, deepening democracy; and in this, experts and national and international organizations related to quality coincide.

In Spain, there is no common integrative framework that allows us to provide the tools and basic elements to promote a comprehensive policy for evaluating public policies. The fragmentation of the evaluation activities carried out in the different public administrations hinders both their visibility and the effective exchange of information and good practices, as well as reducing their impact and usefulness.

In addition, it is noted that the absence of an independent body makes it difficult to consolidate the evaluation culture in a permanent, systematic and generalized way.

This normative project seeks to work on a clearer and more precise definition of the concepts and general principles of evaluation of public policies and to promote their institutionalization in public administrations, especially in the General Administration of the State and its related agencies, without prejudice to the necessary collaboration and cooperation with other levels of government.

Our society faces the challenge of a recovery after the social and health crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as the challenge of facing with maximum transparency and efficiency the use of resources from the support mechanisms foreseen in the Next Generation Mechanism of the European Union and in the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan of the Government of Spain.

This requires the strengthening, at all levels, of the tools of democratic impulse, so this normative proposal has been included as a reform project in Component 11, within the Policy Lever IV, "An Administration for the 21st Century", of the Plan of Recovery, Transformation and Resilience.

The initiative aims to promote the institutionalization of the evaluation of public policies as a tool for improvement, accountability and transparency of the action of the General Administration of the State and its related public agencies, through the formalization and systematization of evaluation practices, the promotion of the culture of evaluation and the institutional organization of evaluation in the General Administration of the State and its related public agencies.

The intention is to create a body with a high degree of autonomy, which is a hub of knowledge in evaluation matters, and which strengthens the ex ante evaluation process.

The law will form a robust and coherent system of quality improvement, design, and evaluation of public policies, complemented by the reinforcement of the ex post evaluation through the Spending Reviews carried out by the AIReF.

Regulation by means of a rule with the rank of Law is considered the only regulatory alternative applicable, with a general scope, to the level of other development tools of democratic quality, such as Law 19/2013, of 9 December, on Transparency, Access to Information and Good Governance. On the other hand, the rank of law is required for the creation of the intended agency.

The alternative non-regulatory solution would mean maintaining the status quo, and the survival of the dispersion and fragmentation of the evaluation activity.