Latest data indicates that 24% of the Assurances made in the 17th Lok Sabha are pending as of 12 January 2023. At the same time, 45% of the Assurances made in the Rajya Sabha during the current (17th) Lok Sabha term are pending. Some very old Assurances are still pending. In a Parliamentary democracy, the Parliament is the supreme authority. The Executive shall be collectively responsible to the Parliament. Parliament provides a unique opportunity for the elected representatives to hold the government accountable. Elected representatives adopt various strategies to gather information on topics of public interest and in that process, ensure accountability of the government. This could be in form of questions, debates, and resolutions, among others. However, often, when the government is faced with a lack of information or the issues raised have not been thought of previously, Ministers frequently provide assurances, commitments, or promises to consider a topic, act, or provide information in the future while responding to questions in the House or during deliberations of Bills, Resolutions, Motions, etc. These assurances do not lapse either on the expiry of the term of Lok Sabha or on the dissolution of the House. These assurances are very crucial, and it becomes imperative that these are tracked, to provide a meaningful closure to the assurances made. For such reasons, the Lok Sabha, and Rajya Sabha have formed the ‘Committee on Government Assurances’. The Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs maintains Online Assurance Monitoring System (OAMS) to keep track of all the assurances made. Today’s story looks at the trends in assurances made, and the implementation of those assurances. Similar reports on assurances and their implementation, compiled by Factly, can be read here, here, here, and here. Brief about the Committee The Lok Sabha has established a ‘Committee on Government Assurances’ with the aim of institutionalising the process to ensure the fulfilment of promises, and undertakings made from time to time by the Ministers are implemented, and in a reasonable amount of time. The Lok Sabha Secretariat and the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs review the discussions in the Lok Sabha to identify the Ministers’ words and responses that serve as assurances. The standard list of forms constituting assurances can be found here. The assurances so picked out are informed to the respective Ministries/Departments. For the implementation of assurance, the Committee has set a maximum time frame of three months, to be counted from the day it was delivered in the House. For any assurances that aren’t feasible to implement, the Government must approach the Committee and present the facts for consideration, and if agreed, such assurances can be dropped. Various Ministries submit implementation reports in the required format to the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs, and a compiled report by the Committee on Government Assurances is placed before the House. Around 24% assurances of 17th Lok Sabha are Pending As of 12 January 2023, around 2259 assurances are made in the 17 term of Lok Sabha. Out of these 2259 assurances, 1605 assurances are implemented, both partially and fully. The number of assurances dropped stands at 122, while the pending assurances add up to 532. This is around 24% of the total assurances made in this term of Lok Sabha. As mentioned earlier, the work on these assurances is a continuous process. Accordingly, progress can be made on the assurances made in the past Lok Sabha terms. The pendency rate of the 13th and 14th Lok Sabha is Zero, while that of the 15 and 16 Lok Sabha is 0.9% and 3.1% respectively. 45% assurances made in Rajya Sabha for current Lok Sabha term are pending Like the Lok Sabha, the sessions held in Rajya Sabha during the current Lok Sabha witnessed higher pendency. During the 16 Lok Sabha, 17 Rajya Sabha sessions (232 to 248) were held, and for the 17 Lok Sabha, so far, 10 sessions (249-258) have been held. The cumulative pendency of assurances in Rajya Sabha during these two Lok Sabha terms stands at 6.8% and 45% respectively. In terms of numbers, 2983 assurances were made in all sessions during the 16 Lok Sabha term, out of which 2640 were fully implemented, and 140 were dropped. For sessions in the 17 Lok Sabha, so far, 908 assurances are given, out of which 490 are fully implemented, and 10 assurances are dropped. 5 ministries account for 30% of the pending assurances If we look at the data of ministry-wise assurances, it is found that around 5.5% of assurances are pending for all ministries cumulatively from the 13th Lok Sabha to the 17 Lok Sabha.