On May 15, 2018, the People’s Committee of Hanoi issued Decision No.12/2018/QD-UBND amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Regulation detailing a number of issues on the granting construction permits in Hanoi issued in conjunction with the Decision No.20/2016/QD-UBND dated June 24, 2016. The Decision took effect since May 25, 2018.

Accordingly, Decision No.12/2018/QD-UBND stipulates the principle of granting construction permits as follows:

1. Agencies granting construction permit shall have to evaluate construction works fully meet the conditions for construction permits or not, based on conclusive opinions of competent agencies on the documents in the dossiers. The document-issuing agencies shall have to bear responsibility for the contents of their domains and agencies granting construction permit shall only check the consistency among the documents in the dossiers and not re-appraise the legality of such documents.
2. Agencies granting construction permit do not need to consult the specialized management agencies in the following cases:

–           Changing the structural plan in the design dossier already evaluated by the specialized construction agency in comparison with the architectural plan;

–           Changing total floor area of ​​construction due to technical errors, no change in construction density, no change in the main size of works and architectural solution works.

Therefore, Decision No.12/2018/QD-UBND is expected to increase the responsibility of state agencies in granting construction permits, ensuring the project is implemented in accordance with the decentralization and the legal regulations, avoiding reporting beyond the level.