Oversight office of the Republic
Commissioner for Future Generations
Established under Article 256 of the Constitution · represents people not yet born
Every bill, every draft plan, every spatial plan and every installation lasting beyond thirty years carries a statement. A measure proceeding without one is recorded here.
Article 258(1): the statement computes the effect upon succeeding generations over the periods organic law fixes, and is published with the draft.
Article 258(2): the Commissioner examines the statement and publishes an opinion. A draft proceeding without a statement, or against an unanswered adverse opinion, is recorded as such in the register.
The statement computes emissions over the five-year period and stops there. The cumulative budget is a total remaining quantity, so a five-year figure discloses nothing about the year the total is reached. The Commissioner has published an adverse opinion, and the draft proceeds recorded as proceeding against it.
Statement computed over forty, one hundred and two hundred years, with the maintenance obligation of each period stated in labour hours and materials. The Commissioner published a favourable opinion and two observations, both accepted.
Sealing of 340 hectares, of which 210 on soil classed as slow to recover. The statement carries the recovery interval, and the plan was amended to move 90 hectares onto ground already sealed.
Effects extend beyond thirty years, so a statement is required. Decommissioning provision computed and published. The Commissioner asked for the dredging spoil obligation to be stated separately, and it was.
The chapter arrived without a statement. A draft proceeding without one is recorded as such in the register, and this entry is that record. The Commissioner has furnished the computation the Secretariat omitted, and it shows rolling stock retired eleven years early against the useful life in the plan.
Statement computed over thirty years. The Commissioner observed that a licence outlasting the bill that authorised it transfers an obligation, and the bill was amended to make every licence expire with the schedule.
No statement matches those conditions.
| Transfer | Stated in | Over |
|---|---|---|
| Depletion of a stock | Physical units, against the remaining total | To exhaustion, not to the end of the plan |
| Contamination | Quantity, medium and persistence | To the interval at which hazard reaches background |
| Disrepair | Labour hours and materials deferred | To the date the work becomes unavoidable |
| Obligation | What a future body is bound to do, and for how long | To the expiry of the binding |
| Risk | Probability, consequence and who bears each | To the horizon at which the risk ends |
A statement computed to the end of the plan discloses the transfers falling inside the plan. The Constitution fixes the periods by organic law so that the horizon of the statement is not chosen by the body writing it.