Article 1 of the Saudi Rules on Suspending Services

Item First sets out the meanings by which the words in the Rules on Suspending Services are understood. The most important is the definition of "services", because it determines what suspension can reach and what it cannot.

• Services: all the services government bodies provide, with an express exception for five groups: services relating to healthcare, education, work, the commercial register, and documentation of civil events and identity documents. These do not fall within the meaning of "services" in the Rules at all.
• Suspending services: a measure under which one or more government bodies refrain from providing one or more services to a person, whether an individual (a natural person) or a business establishment (a legal person).
• The Center: the National Information Center.
• The electronic platform: the unified electronic platform for suspending services.
• The Committee: the supervisory committee for the electronic platform.

The importance of these definitions appears when reading item Second, which requires that suspension be based on a legal basis, a Council of Ministers decision, a royal order, a judicial order or an order from the Public Prosecution, that it be carried out through the electronic platform, and that it be preceded by notification from the Committee. Every reference in the Rules to "the platform" or "the Committee" means the two bodies defined here.

Anyone who believes that a service suspended for them is among the services excluded in this definition may consider engaging a lawyer specializing in administrative cases to assess their position.