Il-Gazzetta tal-Gvern ta’ Malta
The Malta Government Gazette
Published by: Dipartiment tal-Informazzjoni (DOI)
(Department of Information (DOI))
Malta
3, Castille Place — Valletta — VLT 1062
Tel. +356 2200 1700
E-mail: info@doi.gov.mt
Website: http://www.doi.gov.mt
Official journal / legal gazette
In Malta there is a single official journal containing legislation as well as legal notices and other official information; see point 1.2 for details.
First edition
27 October 1813
First online edition
December 2003
Paper edition
Il-Gazzetta tal-Gvern ta’ Malta Price
Depending on page content. Average EUR 3.
Article 72 (4) of the Maltese Constitution states that when a law has received presidential assent it will be published in the Gazette without delay and does not come into force until it has been published. Article 16 of the Interpretation Act — Chapter 249 of the Laws of Malta — refers to electronic publishing. The Statute Law Revision Act of 1980 also makes reference to the publication of legal texts after periodic revision, with Section 11A making specific reference to the publication of laws on the Internet.
The original files of the Gazette are saved in InDesign format.
Archiving
There are no legal provisions for archiving the electronic editions of legislation; nevertheless, the Department of Information (DOI) provides this service as an extra facility for the public.
Standard software packages such as Microsoft Word are normally used.
Drafts in Word format are compiled as a publication with InDesign at the Publishing Unit of the Department of Information and referred in PDF format for printing at the Government Printing Press. The same system is used for primary and secondary legislation but this is done at the Government Printing Press.
Workflow
There is no single integrated electronic workflow system for drafting, adopting and publishing legislation. Transmission is done electronically.
Proofreading and editing are realised by the DOI Publishing Unit.
The minimum period between reception of the draft by the publishing workflow and the availability of the published text is one day (or hours if need be), or at the discretion of the respective ministries.
Publishing
The paper and electronic editions are published at the same time and they are derived from the same final text file. From January 2009, the Government Gazette and Legislation have started to be printed on recycled paper.
Ministeru tal-Gustizzja, Kultura u Gvern Lokali
(Ministry for Justice, Culture and Local Government)
Status of the
consolidated texts
The collection of the Laws of Malta on the website is an official collection of consolidated legislation — see the Statute Law Revision Act, 1984, which is reproduced at the beginning of the Laws of Malta collection on the website.
Deadline for
consolidation
Amendments to existing legislation approved by the House of Representatives are integrated within the original text, once they come into force, so that the displayed text is the current version of the legislation. The latest version update (date last updated) is displayed accordingly.
Ministeru tal-Gustizzja, Kultura u Gvern Lokali
(Ministry for Justice, Culture and Local Government)
Content
Contains all the chapters of the Laws of Malta including the Constitution of Malta and the Statute Law Revision Act; subsidiary legislation and chronological and analytical indexes for all legislation in consolidated form.
Legal (publishing) enterprises
Printed legal services (provided by the enterprise) have ceased, following the introduction of an online edition of the Laws of Malta, as quoted at Section 3.2.
