Government consultation portal may be overused, expert says

More than one matter a day was published for comment through the government consultation portal in July, raising concerns that the system may be overused, mbl.is reports. A total of 35 matters were submitted, and the consultation period ended on 15 of them during the month.

The matters included draft legislation on nicotine and tobacco control, plans to amend passport legislation, a bill on child protection and plans to introduce a bill amending social security legislation.

Haukur Arnþórsson, a doctor of public administration, says the portal has been an important tool for opening up the policymaking process. However, he says it may also be burdensome if used too frequently.

The July figures represent a sharp increase compared with the average reported by Morgunblaðið on June 20. From the portal’s launch on February 5, 2018, until mid-June 2026, a total of 2,131 matters had been published for consultation, equivalent to an average of one matter every 1.43 days.

According to the portal’s records, 17 matters were under consultation in June, while consultation had ended and submissions were being processed by ministries in 448 matters.

Limited space in the public sphere

The number of matters is not the only issue. It has also become common for matters to be published up to three times, first as plans, then as drafts and finally as completed proposals.

Arnþórsson says the repeated publications allow interest groups to follow how matters develop. At the same time, he says governments appear to use the portal to promote their own plans and bring them into the public debate.

“That was of course not the purpose of the consultation portal,” he says.

Arnþórsson also says the public sphere has limited capacity, creating a risk that the volume of matters will exceed the ability of the public and interest groups to follow them. He says there are examples of governments getting matters through without attracting attention simply because there was no room for them in the public debate.

Broader participation

Before the portal was introduced in 2018, consultation between ministries and society was relatively limited, according to Arnþórsson.

“Before that, consultation between ministries and society was rather limited, and it was often selected groups that influenced matters. Most often, it was simply ministry officials themselves who worked on the matters,” he says.

Arnþórsson says he has no assessments of the experience of using the portal, but believes the nature of preparatory work may have changed.

“It can be inferred that obtaining responses from interest groups and individuals means government matters are better prepared than before. That may save parliamentary processing time or make the discussion there more thorough,” he says.