Using IT tools has become normal in parliaments. Within this wide area, the management of legislative documents and related workflows seems to be one of the most challenging subplots. Essentially, the cornerstone of various document management systems is to provide the stakeholders of legislation with adequate information on parliamentary business. Recently, it also grants opportunities to participate in the legislative work efficiently, without spatial restrictions, in a sustainable way. These systems are usually created to satisfy these needs with (re)usable documents, although their complexity varies greatly.
The ‘ParLex’ project was launched to effectively address these challenges, and the Office of the Hungarian National Assembly started the development of web-based software to bolster the legislative work. ParLex provides an advanced solution for developing the legislative process by enhancing stakeholder engagement and increasing the level of transparency.
ParLex enables not only members of parliament (MPs) and their staff to create, edit and propose bills, amendments and other legislative documents in XML format, but it also supports the work of civil servants in the offices in charge. The legislative work (including office tasks in the parliament) for instance, framing legal opinions and creating background materials for committee sittings, are covered by the system from the formulation of a legislative proposal to the automatic publication on the website.
The system handles the results of voting on amendments, thus consolidated text of the adopted laws can be generated automatically, also managing the changes of cross-references in the content. ParLex calculates the overall totals in the budget bill as well. Problems of geographical distance and time constraints in legislation are also mitigated by this tool. This approach accelerates the decision-making process by ensuring that relevant stakeholders spend more time on formulating public policy decisions, instead of coping with an administrative burden.
One of the greatest improvements is greener legislation. Owing to the interconnection of the parliament website and ParLex, legislative work can be managed without a single sheet of paper. As a piece of work is done, information appears online automatically. Published documents are available in PDF, enabling users to reuse the official content freely. The accelerated decision-making process, with lowered administrative burden and encapsulated in greener legislation, increases the level of transparency.