The civil status certificate is the administrative document the most requested by users to the local authorities within the framework of the administrative steps. In 2004 the French state wished to propose a new online service to the users, but also to the municipalities, to facilitate this step. The mechanism opened in June 2006 enables therefore users to submit their on-line request through a one-stop shop. This portal inventories all comparable online services proposed by the communities which make them available and offer other municipalities a complete and free digitized service, with the possibility of treating the files automatically by their offices.
Policy Context
The issuing of the civil status certificates in France is a mission entrusted to the mayors of the municipalities, which hold and manage, on behalf of the state, the civil registries. France has 36,000 civil registries, which are regularly kept up to date on paper medium. Due to legal obstacles, only two steps have been able to be digitized: the request formulated by the users and the requests formulated by a municipality to another municipality on the account of a user. It is for these two uses that the online service wishes to answer by proposing a pragmatic, but effective step, which guarantees the exercise of the mayors' skills under better conditions and by facilitating the users' life. However, the implementation of other stages is being studied, as soon as the legal obstacles of the digitized notarial act are raised. The distribution of the electronic signature within communities and within administrations will make it possible between now and three or four years to propose better safety when exchanging information.
Description of target users and groups
French citizens. A birth certificate is required to obtain a national identity card or a passport, and often is requested by the social services or educational establishments. On the whole, 14 million requests for birth certificate are carried out each year in France.
Description of the way to implement the initiative
The process was led by a narrow partnership with the public actors, private partners, and users. Initiated in 2004, four Working Parties were implemented: - Standardisation of the data for the civil status certificate: This group, which met 3 times, aimed to determine the legal conditions of implementation of the mechanism. It included, in addition to the state services, representatives of the communities and of the association of the Mayors of France and of the notaries. - Ergonomics: This group met in 5 times. It was made up of state and local authority agents and services: ten of the communities took part in a test 4 months before the launching of the final version. - Accompaniment of change and deployment: This group aimed to prepare the elements of training and communication supports. - Private editors: The private editors were brought together at three key moments of the project, in particular at the time of the finalisation of the data plan. This project was managed by the Directorate-General for State Modernisation (DGME) within the framework of a partnership involving several Working Parties: ministries, communities, users, industrials, public partners (Deposit and Consignment Office CDC, national Caisse of family benefits CNAF… ).
Technology solution
The device, while calling for new technologies (JEE Development) presents interesting technical points. Architecture which calls for an original method of management of the exchanges with the municipalities, and in particular the management of a directory of the municipalities which is able to deal with multiple profiles of communities, by proposing a range of services going from simple rerouting to an Internet site to the personalised portal to the agents of the municipality within the framework of treatment on-line back office. In addition, in order to give a high safety level to the municipalities who receive the requests by mail, the online service offers the signature of the consignments from the public keys provided by the municipalities through their personalised interface. A last point is being developed and will be deployed during the third quarter. It will allow the municipalities a very strong personalisation of the form (Colours, headpieces…), from information that they will amend directly on-line. In this way, the form will be able to take the appearance of the site of the municipality, since the user can indeed arrive directly on the form of the online from the website of its municipality.
Main results, benefits and impacts
This online service is today the first national online national procedure, with more than 12,000 connections per day, but especially more than 9,500 requests formulated daily through the portal. The adhesion of the municipalities is important, and 502 municipalities are today partners of our online services. Officially inaugurated on 30 June 2006, the service "on-line birth certificate" records already more than 12,000 connections and 8,000 requests per day. Thanks to the massive adhesion of the municipalities, more than 50% of the Frenchmen can achieve this step on Internet. The simplicity of the procedure has seduced the French citizens. Some clicks are enough for the citizen to fill out and validate their request, by indicating their birth municipality, their identity, their date of birth, their address, the number of copies desired. The users who carry out their request on the web receive their birth certificate a few days later by mail.
Return on investment
Return on investment: Not applicable / Not availableTrack record of sharing
At a strategic level, the creation of a national online service on behalf of the local authorities facilitated the implementation of strong partnership steps, especially around issues like the management of accounts of on-line public bodies and the management of a reference frame of the municipalities, common to several electronic administration projects (form server, change of address, on-line subsidy requests). At the semantic level, the project was the opportunity to define a standard of a person's data (common data Plan), essential for the implementation of the interoperability between information systems. This standard, readopted by the software editors now makes it possible to propose the integration of information within further trade applications.
Lessons learnt
Lesson 1 – Pilot a strong partnership. Lesson 2 - The interoperability of information must be in the centre of the strategy. Lesson 3 - Offer a simple service, and improve it gradually.
Scope: Local (city or municipality), National