The Senate approved three bills as received from the House of Representatives, while returning the General Statistics Law and the Civil Aviation Amendment Law to the House after making amendments to them in its session today, Tuesday, chaired by Senate President Faisal Al-Fayez, with the presence of the Cabinet members.
اضافة اعلان
The Senate made an amendment to the General Statistics Law, which allowed non-governmental entities to conduct studies for marketing their products or services and collect statistical data for their own use or for others, provided they obtain prior written permission from the Director-General of Statistics, in accordance with a special system issued for this purpose. This amendment differs from the original bill, which had required approval from the Department of Statistics, as agreed by the House of Representatives.
Additionally, the Senate recommended that the government clarify the concepts of (statistics, data, information, analysis, processing, and information extraction) and establish specific definitions for them in the preparation of regulations and instructions to better understand the roles of concerned institutions such as the Department of Statistics, the National Information Center, the Ministry of Digital Economy, and private sector institutions.
The Senate's amendments to the Civil Aviation Amendment Law granted the Civil Aviation Regulatory Authority the right to approve or reject the study and evaluation of land and area uses within airports and surrounding areas that may affect the safety or security of civil aviation operations, without the need for Cabinet approval, as had been stipulated by the House of Representatives. Additionally, the Senate approved Article 18, which had been deleted by the House, declaring all documents issued by the Civil Aviation Regulatory Authority as official documents, whether paper-based or electronic, including licenses, certifications, accreditations, and communications.
The Senate also approved the Amended Law for the Restructuring of Government Institutions and Departments as received from the House of Representatives, with a recommendation to establish an organizational separation between higher education and technical education to prevent any encroachment by higher education in the new authority (the Accreditation and Quality Assurance Commission), which resulted from the merger of the Vocational Skills Development Commission and the Higher Education Institutions Accreditation Commission. It also considered the recommendations of the Senate's Academic System Update Document to enhance the role of scientific research in achieving sustainable development and meeting community needs, especially regarding the transfer of the Scientific Research Fund to the Higher Council for Science and Technology.
The Senate also recommended the development of an integrated system to update the media sector's structure based on the principles of the 2003 Royal Vision for Media, strengthening media freedom and independence, adhering to professionalism, keeping pace with technological developments, and engaging with society.
The Senate approved the Agricultural Risk Mitigation Fund Law as received from the House of Representatives, aiming to promote solidarity and cooperation between farmers and fund members to mitigate agricultural risks and their impacts, encourage agricultural investment, and compensate farmers who are not members of the fund for damage caused by frost risks.
Finally, the Senate approved the Amended Customs Law as received from the House of Representatives, aiming to develop the Customs Department's operations and enable it to carry out customs clearance procedures through staff exercising the powers of relevant regulatory authorities under the applicable prohibition and restriction laws. It also allows for post-clearance audits according to the World Customs Organization's methodologies and permits the use of electronic means for notifications related to decisions and documents issued by the Customs Department.
