A striking oversight has surfaced in recent parliamentary exchanges: no ministerial advisory committee responsible for overseeing public sector supervision has been appointed in the last five years. On top of that, the minister has also fallen short of a statutory obligation to report to Alþingi as required by law.
The detail emerged in Hanna Katrín Friðriksson’s reply to a question from Sigurður Arnar Hilmarsson, a deputy from the Independence Party. Hilmarsson was asking why ministerial reports on the special supervision of public sector activities involving individuals and companies have been so rare. The Act on Public Inspection Rules, passed in 1999, requires such reports every three years. That means eight should have been submitted by now — yet only two have been.
In her response, the minister explained that the advisory committee has gone without new members since the term of the last appointees expired in May 2020. Up to that point, appointments had been the prime minister’s responsibility. A 2020 presidential decree then transferred oversight of the committee to the Ministry of Employment.
Hanna Katrín also pointed to the broader context. The 1999 legislation is currently being revised in full, partly because the legal landscape around it has shifted considerably. Historically the committee concentrated on reviewing draft laws and regulations. When the law was first written, things like stakeholder consultations and impact assessments — now standard parts of the drafting process — simply weren’t part of the picture.
Given all this, the Ministry takes the view that a thorough review of both the public supervision law and the committee’s purpose is needed, to bring everything into line with how much has changed since the legislation was first put in place.
