The National Assembly adopted the Law on Protection of State Secrets with 91.55 per cent of deputies voting in favour of the bill.

NA deputies vote to adopt the Law on Protection of State Secrets. (Photo: NDO/Duy Linh)

The law consists of five chapters with 28 articles, regulating the principles of state secret protection, international cooperation in the work, prohibited actions, scope of state secrets, and types of state secrets, among others.

According to the law, the scope of state secrets is the range of important information in the 15 fields that haven’t been publicised, and if they are revealed or lost, national interests could be jeopardised.

The law stipulates that the Prime Minister issues the lists of state secrets, and the heads of top agencies compile the list of state secrets within their remits.

The compilers of the state secret lists, except for the Minister of Public Security and the Minister of National Defence, are responsible for sending dossiers to the Ministry of Public Security for verification. After these lists are verified, they will be submitted to the Prime Minister for approval.

The ministers of public security and national defence directly submit the lists of state secrets under their ministries’ remit to the Prime Minister.

The Law on Protection of State Secrets will come into force on January 1, 2020, replacing the Ordinance 30/2000/PL-UBTVQH10 on state secret protection.

However, the regulations relating to the compilation, verification and issuance of state secret lists, along with stipulations on the protection term and protection term extension will take effect on January 1, 2019./.

VNF/VNA