The citizens' enquiry service is a channel for queries about the various functions of Parliament. Queries will be answered in an email message that the citizen receives as soon as his/her request for information has been processed.

Guidelines for formulating enquiries

Personal identification of senders

Messages sent (whether by email or by formulas) must be identified with the sender's first name and family name(s), as well as his/her email address. Anonymous messages will not be accepted and will therefore not be answered or followed up in any way.

Message contents and use of language

There are no a priori restrictions on message content, which may include queries, requests for information, complaints, criticism, recommendations, advice, etc. However, messages that fall into the following categories will not be accepted or answered: those whose intention is to offend, or which use deliberately coarse language, or which contain harmful or calumnious statements against any person, or which include statements inciting racial hatred, violence or discrimination, or which are contrary to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights or, in general, to any individual or collective right protected by laws in force.

Responsibility of senders

Senders of messages are legally responsible for their contents and for the truthfulness of their identifying data. In particular, they are responsible for any breach of confidentiality, of any infringement on authorship rights or any other infringement of the legitimate rights of third parties that may derive from the message.

Language of messages

There are no restrictions with regard to the language in which the message is written. However, Parliament only guarantees the processing of messages written in any of the official languages in Catalonia (Catalan, Spanish and Occitan or Aranese). With regard to messages written in other languages, Parliament only undertakes to deal with them when their comprehension, at the discretional criteria of Parliament, does not involve disproportionate effort on the part of the persons who have to deal with them. Please note that Parliament is under no obligation to reply in any language that does not enjoy official status in Catalonia.

Personal data and confidentiality

Identifying data is required in order to facilitate handling of the issue in question and of the reply to the sender. Parliament guarantees that its processing of this data is in line with personal data protection laws and on information society services, and will not use it either to store information that allows identification of the individual web user, or to offer unrequested services. Once the relevant steps have been taken, Parliament does not keep the data.

Handling of a message assumes the sender's express authorisation for Parliament to forward it in its entirety, including personal data, to parliamentary groups and to MPs in the cases where it considers that such is the appropriate action.

Scope of the medium and responsibility waiver

The processing of a message is not necessarily deemed to be the right to petition; petitions addressed to Parliament in exercise of that right must be undertaken in line with the requisites and the formats established by law before the Parliamentary Petitions Committee.

In the cases where received messages meet the established requisites, Parliament endeavours to respond within a reasonable period of time. Nevertheless, Parliament assumes no responsibility for the lack of a response or for any delayed response to the recipient.

Parliament is not responsible for the accuracy, the truthfulness or the seriousness of any information (including statements of opinion or advice) written by senders. In no case is it responsible for the content of the messages that it receives, or for any subsequent action taken as a result of these messages.