The Electronic Service Act can become a revolution in relations between citizens and public administrations, as its aim is to ensure the possibility of using one, its own address for electronic service which can be used for official correspondence with public administrations.
As 9 October 2020 The bill was passed to the President and the Senate Marshal, it is worth looking at its main assumptions.
Data in the electronic address database
First, It is planned to create a database in which data for e-correspondence will have to be collected so that offices have access to them. This data is to be included in the new register with the grateful name ‘electronic address database’.
This database will be a public register, kept in the electronic system by the Minister responsible for computerisation, containing addresses for the electronic service of individuals or entities using the public registered electronic service. It shall also include addresses for the electronic service of natural persons or entities using qualified registered electronic services.
On the basis of the data entered in the register, the public entity will be obliged to provide us with correspondence in electronic form to the address indicated in the register. Such a form will be matched with a traditional, written (listual) form of service.
The boxes will be handled by the designated operator – for the beginning of the Polish Post Office
The exchange of electronic correspondence is to be ensured by the designated operator. By means of boxes of service made available to him in the public registered electronic service.
The process of creating an address for electronic delivery and the establishment of a delivery box will be modelled in such a way that it provides undeniable evidence that a specific person representing himself or authorised to represent the entity for which the delivery box is established has requested it.
first Polish Post will be the operator. She will continue to serve this function until the end 2025
For digitally excluded, hybrid service
For those who are reluctant to digitize or in the digital world feel excluded or usually do not use it, a public hybrid service has been prepared.
It will consist in the fact that in the case of the transmission of letters sent by a public body sending the content by electronic means and the recipient of the physical form of the letter is a non-public entity, the electronic document will be converted into paper form and delivered to the addressee in a traditional form.
Correspondence shall be supplemented by the accompanying confirmation of the signature of the electronic document by the public body or its representative by an electronic signature together with an indication of the type of signature or confirmation of the declaration of will by the public entity or its representative using an electronic identification means.
Author: Michał Skwarek - Council applicant in the legal department Russell Bedford Poland. Graduated from the Faculty of Law and Administration of the University of Warsaw.