China to promote full coverage of legal services at village level

China will step up efforts to facilitate full coverage of such services as popularization of laws, people's mediation and legal aid, and to give full play to the role of legal advisors at the village level, according to a guideline jointly released by China's Ministry of Civil Affairs (MCA) and 15 other departments.

The guideline urges more assistance in government services in accordance with the law, by offering guidance to relevant organizations at the village-level in the publicity campaign on laws and regulations, information release, consultation and feedback, and improving public security and people's mediation committees to better coordinate defense across society and to strengthen investigation and mediation in civil disputes.  

The guideline also stresses the necessity to specify the government service standards to strengthen organizational guarantees. Backed by information technologies such as "Internet plus government services", functions of such channels as the government service platform, as well as mobile and self-service terminals, will be upgraded and applied at villages, according to the guideline. 

For those government services in need of village assistance in accordance with the law, relevant functional departments of the people's governments at the county level should provide funds and working conditions and enhance operational guidance and training, the guideline noted.