The Hon. (Dr.) Nalinda Jayatissa - Minister of Health and Mass Media and Chief Government Whip

¶ 01 (a)

¶ 02 (i) Year — Allocated provisions (Rs.) - 2016 — - 2017 — 10,000,000.00 - 2018 — 30,000,000.00 - 2019 — 1,100,000.00 - 2020 — 7,152,000.00 - 2021 — 13,000,000.00 - 2022 — - 2023 — 2,000,000.00 - 2024 — 2,000,000.00 - 2025 — 5,000,000.00

¶ 03 (ii) Steps to strengthen implementation: - Implementing training programmes, organizing workshops and providing resource persons, training materials, Acts, etc. to educate information officers, subject officers and other relevant officials of State Ministries, departments, District Secretariats and Divisional Secretariats. - Conducting awareness programmes for community organizations, Grama Niladharis, field officers and community-based leaders regarding this Act at the Divisional Secretariat level. - Conducting a wide publicity campaign through electronic and print media to raise awareness among citizens regarding the right to information. - Creating a training pool among schoolchildren covering subjects in Grades 9, 10 and 11, covering Advanced Level subjects, and taking steps to make university students aware. - Taking action to receive applications for information under the Right to Information Act via electronic means. - Training public officials as trainers and maintaining a resource pool to conduct training programmes on the Right to Information Act. - Printing books related to the Right to Information Act such as the Information Officer’s Manual, Training Methods and Training Modules for Trainers, the Information Act Guide, and citizen awareness leaflets. - Organizing workshops in all Provincial Councils in relation to the Right to Information Act. - Commission’s rules relating to the Act have been drafted and forwarded for approval of the Commission. They are scheduled to be gazetted once approval is granted. - Updating the prices applicable to payments made for obtaining information. - Updating the rules and regulations applicable to the Act. - Since it was observed that the Rules and Regulations No. 2004/66 published under the Right to Information Act have not been forwarded to Parliament for necessary legal concurrence, action is to be taken to review and publish the relevant Rules and Regulations and to submit them to Parliament.

¶ 04 (iii) Legal reforms will follow from the above updates to rules and regulations and submission to Parliament as noted.

¶ 05 (b)

¶ 06 (i) Appeals before the Right to Information Commission:

¶ 07 Year — Total appeals received — Appeals resolved with final orders - 2017 — 630 — 57 - 2018 — 1,441 — 549 - 2019 — 1,620 — 709 - 2020 — 1,005 — 527 - 2021 — 1,054 — 475 - 2022 — 1,525 — 1,451 - 2023 — 1,688 — 1,500 - 2024 — 1,852 — 1,837 - 2025 (from 2025.01.01 to 2025.09.30) — 1,306 — 1,157

¶ 08 (ii) Number of appeals not concluded:

¶ 09 Year — Not concluded - 2017 — 147 - 2018 — 251 - 2019 — 380 - 2020 — 472 - 2021 — 495 - 2022 — 124 - 2023 — 64 - 2024 — 112 - 2025 (from 2025.01.01 to 2025.09.30) — 308

¶ 10 (c) Not applicable.