The Social Development Affairs Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) said it will further strengthen research and deliberations on legislation related to elderly care services in collaboration with other competent departments, conduct targeted studies and research, and accelerate legislative process, and will advise the NPC Standing Committee to include legislation on elderly care services in its annual legislative plans.

During the fifth session of the 13th NPC in 2022, a motion about legislation on elderly care services was submitted. According to the motion, China's existing elderly care system is still incomplete and there are ambiguity in the responsibilities of the government, society, market and families, as well as inadequate guarantees for elderly care facilities, institutions, personnel and capital together with imbalanced regional development, which lead to difficulties in meeting the diverse needs of the elderly.

Therefore, the motion urged for greater efforts to draft a law on elderly care services to promote the sustainable and sound development of the sector.

In response to the motion, the Ministry of Civil Affairs said that it has completed the drafting of the elderly care services law and will take into account suggestions of NPC deputies and work with other related departments to accelerate the legislative process.

The National Health Commission noted that it will earnestly fulfill its obligations in the formulation of elderly care service laws, systems and supporting measures to fully meet the ever-growing healthcare needs of the elderly.

The Ministry of Justice said that the country has laid out its top-level design for the development of elderly care services in a set of guidelines for facilitating elderly care services and plans to advance the elderly care service system during the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) period. Elderly care services involve government, society and individual families, therefore, the legislation in this sector needs more research and studies, it added.