On 1 September 2026, Việt Nam’s rewritten freedom of information law quietly took effect — one day before National Day, and with far less coverage than the data protection and cybersecurity decrees we have been tracking on this blog. It deserves more attention. Luật Tiếp cận thông tin số 01/2026/QH16 is the very first law promulgated by the newly elected 16th National Assembly, and it replaces the 2016 Access to Information Law with a framework built explicitly around digital government: information published on portals and data platforms by default, requests filed through apps and online channels, and — for the first time — disclosure duties for public hospitals and schools, not just state agencies.
What the document is
Luật Tiếp cận thông tin số 01/2026/QH16 was passed on 23 April 2026 at the first session of the 16th National Assembly, signed by National Assembly Chairman Trần Thanh Mẫn, and published in Công báo số 284 on 26 May 2026. It took effect on 1 September 2026, replacing Luật Tiếp cận thông tin số 104/2016/QH13, which had been in force since July 2018. The new law is compact — 4 chapters and 31 articles, per LuatVietnam’s summary — but the government’s own commentary frames it as a response to nearly eight years of uneven implementation of the 2016 law and to the demands of the national digital transformation programme.
What changes compared to before
More bodies owe you information. The 2016 law bound state agencies only. The 2026 law extends disclosure obligations to đơn vị sự nghiệp công lập — public service units providing basic, essential public services in education, healthcare, culture, and social welfare. In practice, a public hospital or state school now carries its own legal duty to publish and provide information, rather than deflecting requests to a supervising ministry.
Digital-first disclosure. The law makes online publication the default channel: cổng thông tin điện tử (government portals), websites, databases, and digital platforms, with the stated goal that citizens can reach information “anytime, anywhere”. Requests can be submitted in person, by post, by email, through online portals, or via mobile apps designated by the responsible body — a marked shift from the paper-centric procedures of the 2016 regime.
A longer mandatory-disclosure list. Commentary on the law highlights significantly expanded categories of information that must be published proactively, concentrated in the areas that generate the most friction between citizens and the administration: national and sectoral databases, official statistics, land information (survey results, valuation, compensation plans, land-use decisions), environmental impact assessments and permits, and healthcare data such as facility lists, service pricing, and recorded violations.
Six groups you still cannot access. Article 15 lists the information that remains off limits: state secrets; information about private life, personal and family secrets (absent consent); trade secrets protected under intellectual property law (absent the owner’s consent); information whose release would harm state interests, national defence, security, foreign affairs, public order, or public health; work secrets; and records of internal meetings and internal working documents. Private-life and trade-secret information can still be released conditionally — with consent, or where disclosure serves the public interest or community health. Notably, the law defers to the Luật Bảo vệ dữ liệu cá nhân for personal data, stitching the transparency regime to the privacy regime that took effect in January 2026.
Concrete deadlines and costs. Information on request must be provided within 12 days, extendable once by no more than 12 further days with written notice (Article 26). Access is free apart from the actual cost of printing, copying, and sending. Agencies must also correct inaccurate published information promptly — a duty the 2016 law handled only loosely.
Who is affected, and how
For citizens and journalists, the practical wins are the expanded land, environment, and healthcare disclosure lists — the categories most often requested and most often refused. For businesses, the law cuts both ways: it is a research tool (planning data, valuation records, and environmental permits become easier to obtain), but companies dealing with the state should remember that trade-secret protection requires the information to actually qualify under IP law — mere commercial sensitivity is not a ground for withholding. For public institutions, the compliance burden is real: hospitals and schools now need designated focal points, publication workflows, and request-handling procedures they never had to maintain before.
The open questions are familiar. The official gazette page lists no implementing decree yet, so procedural details — forms, fee schedules, the boundary between “internal working documents” and refusable-by-default records — remain to be filled in. The internal-documents and work-secrets exceptions are broad enough to swallow much of the law if applied expansively, and how first-instance refusals are policed will determine whether the 12-day deadline means anything. As with the sanctions decrees we covered in August, the early enforcement practice will be the real guidance.
Sources
- Luật số 01/2026/QH16 — Công báo Chính phủ (official gazette)
- Luật Tiếp cận thông tin 2026, số 01/2026/QH16 — LuatVietnam
- Công dân không được tiếp cận 6 nhóm thông tin từ 01/9/2026 — LuatVietnam
- Từ 01/09/2026: Những điểm mới về phạm vi thông tin công khai và giới hạn quyền tiếp cận thông tin — Vietstock
- Từ ngày 01/9/2026, Luật Tiếp cận thông tin năm 2026 chính thức có hiệu lực — Cổng TTĐT Hà Tĩnh
- Luật Tiếp cận thông tin năm 2026: Tăng cường công khai, minh bạch — Cổng TTĐT Thanh Hóa
This post is general information, not legal advice.