Base Registries, Universal Database of Information

Case Abstract:

Base Public Administration Registries are one of the fundamental pillars of modern eGovernment and public administration, i.e. of the process of digitising public administration. The chief justification for the existence of Base Registries is to provide public servants, institutions of public and municipal administrations, and commercial and other entities with controlled access to information about citizens and relations between citizens and the various entities.

The motivation is to improve the effectiveness of bureaucratic processes, which are still based on principles from hundreds of years ago, when the first paper record keeping started to appear (be it land registers or later parish registers). The current amount of data is impossible to store and process in a local context. Societal development necessitates the sharing, interconnecting, updating, and accessing of data using diverse authorisation modes. There is also the obvious requirement of a high level of security and keeping track of access.

Topic: eGovernment

• Target audience: public and municipal administration employees, citizens
• Scope: national
• Status: in the process of implementation

Case description:

What Are Base Registries

In accordance with current legislation, the system of Base Registries was deployed in a production environment on 1 July, 2012. This has meant the start of a long and sometimes problematic process of modernising a significant part of state-administration processes.

Base Registries are a central, universal databases and, as such, they must provide for an efficient, secure, and transparent exchange of the data they store. In principle, there are a number of systems that form a cohesive whole. The system of Base Registries consists of the following four registers.

Registry of Rights and Duties

The Registry of Rights and Duties is a source of data for controlling access to Base Registries. This means that whenever somebody attempts to use an information system to access or change data in the registries, the system determines whether the access is legally authorised. The Registry of Rights and Duties is administered by the Ministry of the Interior.

The Registry of Rights and Duties controls access to the other registers and keeps records of all access. By using the Registry of Rights and Duties, every citizen can find out who accessed or modified their data and for what purpose. Holders of data boxes (legal entities are required to have a data box by law, and private individuals may choose to have one) automatically receive an annual statement with a list of those who accessed their data in the registers. This statement can also be obtained at Czech.POINT contact locations.

Registry of Persons

The Registry of Persons is a database of legal entities and their organisational bodies, private individuals who conduct business, foreign entities and their organisational bodies, organisations with international elements, and state organisational bodies. The Registyr of Persons is operated by the Czech Statistical Office.

The database contains basic identification data about persons, their business premises, and legal agents. All persons recorded in the Registry of Persons are identified using a unique identifier (a so-called company registration number).

The Registry of Persons is used by all public-administration bodies that are authorized to access it in the Registry of Rights and Duties. Data for the newly established system was acquired from existing databases – the commercial register, trade register, information systems of selected ministries and other state-administration bodies, professional chambers, municipalities, regions, etc.

Registry of Inhabitants

The Registry of Inhabitants contains reference data about private individuals. This includes citizens of the Czech Republic and the European Union, foreigners with CR residence permits, and foreigners who have been granted international protection on the territory of the Czech Republic in the form of asylum or subsidiary protection. The data was sourced from relevant current records, and the register shares the necessary data with the other Base Registries. The Registry of Inhabitants is administered by the Ministry of the Interior.

The reference data kept in Base Registries is guaranteed by the state to be current and correct. All modifications of reference data are reflected in all other public-administration agendas, and citizens are thus spared the need to give evidence about these changes to multiple public-administration bodies. For example, when changing a name or an address, citizens can simply visit the nearest authority in their place of residence to report the change, and all the other authorities will share this information between themselves using the Base Registries system.

Registry of Territorial Identification, Addresses and Real Estate

The Registry of Territorial Identification, Addresses and Real Estate (RUIAN) keeps records of territorial elements, land-registration units, addresses, territorial identification, and data about special territorial elements. Individual elements are shown on maps.

RUIAN also processes ownership data from the information system of the land register. It is the only Basic Registry that stores non-reference data as well, such as the so-called “technical and economic attributes” of buildings (number of floors, surface area, connections to gas, sewage, water, and heat mains).

This project includes remote access, which allows the public to view RUIAN data for free. The register is administered by the Czech Office for Surveying, Mapping and Cadastre.

Other Systems of Base Registries

The following support systems are also a part of the Base Registries framework:

• Information System of Base Registries, administered by the National Registry Authority;
• Individual Identifiers' Converter, administered by the Office for Personal Data Protection.

The Information System of Base Registries serves as the Base Registries control system and links the four Base Registries to the Individual Identifiers' Converter and data editors (i.e. information systems at various public-administration bodies).

The Individual Identifiers' Converter plays a key role in ensuring the security and anonymity of data. All reference data in the individual registers is administered in a way that makes it impossible to automatically link it to information in other registers. The aim is to protect citizens' personal data. In order to acquire data about one entity from all registers, the Converter, which is operated by the Office for Personal Data Protection, needs to be used.

Note: The Base Registries system does not include the following systems: Vehicle Registry, Driver Registry, Registry of Economic Entities, Commercial Registry, Insolvency Registry, Trade Registry, Penal Registry, Credit Registry, and some others.

Impact of Implementation

Base Registries entail a major reform of the public-administration system. The state is attempting to professionalise public services and provide citizens with assurances of their quality, security, and comprehensiveness. The state:

• adopts a comprehensive, modern system with an elaborate architecture;
• acquires a tool for more accurate socio-demographic analyses that can be used, for example, to adapt social policies;
• streamlines office work-flow, which was too complex;
• plans to save financial resources by relying on Base Registries;
• has the opportunity to improve its public image through better efficiency.

Benefits for citizens are as follows:

• simplified bureaucratic processes - authorities can deal with many tasks themselves without offloading their work onto citizens;
• better public control over state activities and the data it stores and uses;
• modernised public-administration processes resulting better public opinion about the way the state works.

By the end of September 2014, following 27 months of production operation, the National Registry Authority registered 2 580 public-administration bodies that had applied to connect 3 670 information systems with their agendas. Base Registries are currently being actively used by 2 266 authorities, which have processed 447 636 428 transactions. The participating bodies include ministries (14), all regions (13 and the capital, Prague), all statutory towns (25), and other entities, such as towns (575), villages (5439), and other organizations (365). The system of Base Registries works in accordance with the law and fulfils its stipulated requirements.