Medienmitteilung

New tools for the reuse of administrative data The documentation of administrative data is gathering pace

30.06.2022 - The Federal Council wishes to relieve individuals and companies of their administrative burden. To this end, the administration already uses existing information several times, thus reducing duplicate surveys. In 2019, the Federal Council instructed the Federal Statistical Office (FSO) to accelerate the reuse of data. The I14Y interoperability platform, which publicly documents existing data collections and classifications, is central to this. Newly added functions support the cataloguing of datasets. In addition, content can now be downloaded from the platform for reuse.

The I14Y interoperability platform (www.i14y.admin.ch) makes the administration's data collections publicly discoverable. Electronic interfaces make it easier to exchange data between the Confederation, cantons, communes and private individuals. A legal basis is required for this exchange and the decentralised data holders remain responsible for their data.

The administrative bodies of the three federal levels can now document and maintain their data on the I14Y interoperability platform themselves. This means that cataloguing can take place at a faster pace. Furthermore, it is now possible to display content from other metadata catalogues in real time on the I14Y platform. One of the first examples of this is the Swiss geographic catalogue (geocat.ch), which is discoverable via the I14Y interoperability platform.

Data quality requirements vary depending on the desired purpose. In order for users to see at a glance whether the data are sufficiently complete for the intended reuse, the I14Y interoperability platform now records information on the quality of data. For the Business and Enterprise Register BER, an additional, extended dashboard with 21 indicators has been created (https://www.housing-stat.ch/monitoringber).

Electronic interfaces are central to rapid data exchange. For this reason, the I14Y interoperability platform is being expanded to become a public directory for these interfaces. The first version is available and will be constantly developed and expanded.

I14Y is used as an identifier for the products and services included in the FSO’s interoperability tasks. In programming language, the abbreviation stands for ‘interoperability’ by taking the first and last letters of that word and inserting the number 14 to represent the remaining letters in between.