Registry modernisation – the next big thing in public administration

Residence registers, civil status registers, commercial registers, registers of associations, land registers, firearms registers, litigation registers, emissions trading registers, medical registers, inland waterway vessel registers, … Vast amounts of data on individuals and organisations are held multiple times in registers such as these. Only by making register data available across different authorities can public administration be modernised in a holistic manner.

Register modernisation creates the technical basis for reliable interconnection between public authorities and the European Union, and, in the longer term, for the potential integration of the private sector. The Register Modernisation Act (RegMoG) provides the framework for the introduction of cross-register identity management. It stipulates that the tax identification number is to serve as a unique, cross-register identifier for retrieving data on an individual. On this basis, an identity data comparison (IDA) is carried out before data is transferred from a register to a data-retrieving body.  It is essential that citizens retain control over their data; in other words, their data must not be retrieved or passed on without their consent. The introduction of a data protection cockpit ensures this control and provides transparency regarding data flows. In future, authorisations for the use of data will be granted and a history of data accesses viewed on a central platform. The major advantage for applicants lies in the ‘once-only’ principle: after registering just once, they can easily use their data anywhere.

Three aspects of register modernisation

We expect the forthcoming follow-up legislation to the OZG to be closely aligned with the objectives of register modernisation. This would lay the organisational foundations for successful end-to-end digitalised processes. In addition to the life events prioritised in the OZG, the Register Modernisation Act should, in our view, initially focus on the processes surrounding the ‘Top 18’ registers. These include, for example, the population register, the identity card register, the Central Trade Register, the pension insurance providers’ insured persons’ accounts and the central vehicle register.

On the technical side, uniform structures, standards and interfaces for data exchange should be established. A kind of ‘data motorway’ is already under construction in the form of the Once-Only Technical System (OOTS). In addition to the prerequisites for interoperability between the various registers, the authorities will then be able to digitise or modernise their respective registers using their own technologies and supplement them with relevant information for data exchange.

The third aspect concerns the operational side. Each public authority should first decide which processes are relevant and modernise these processes as a priority by linking them to the IDA identity data matching system. The aim is to achieve seamless end-to-end processes, which will mean shorter waiting times for citizens, whilst also simplifying administrative work in the future. Thanks to these digital processes, staff shortages and the consequences of demographic change within the public sector can be mitigated, and staff resources can be deployed more effectively.

Over recent years, Materna has developed a comprehensive understanding of the requirements for registers. In addition to the development and modernisation of registers, its portfolio includes, in particular, the development and modernisation of specialist procedures – especially in connection with many services under the Civil Status Act (OZG) – the introduction of portal solutions and the integration of e-files.

Having examined Germany’s register landscape, in the next instalment of this series we will turn our attention to a completely different topic, one which is nevertheless also linked to the Online Access Act and digitalisation in public administration: UI design with due regard to UX considerations.