23.08.2023 - At its meeting of 23 August 2023, the Swiss Federal Council decided to extend its programme called “National Data Management (NaDB)" until 2026. Thereafter, the work will be performed by the Federal Statistical Office (FSO) as a permanent task.
In 2019, with the federal mandate for National Data Management (NaDB), the Federal Council laid the foundations for making public sector data stewardship simpler and more efficient through the multiple use of data. By harmonising and standardising the data of all agencies involved, citizens and businesses will only have to report certain data once in the future (once-only principle). The FSO was commissioned to gather experience in this regard in various pilot projects.
Multiple use of data thanks to harmonisation and standardisation
So that data can be used several times, all stakeholders in the public sector need to use the data catalogue and metadata (description of a dataset) in the same way. In addition, the different agencies must be able to exchange the data, i.e., data must be interoperable.
In its role as Swiss Data Steward, the FSO promotes the interoperability of data and metadata between data sources, registers and data users. It develops instruments and tools so that different systems and applications can communicate with each other across all levels of government. Furthermore, the coordination of the standardisation and harmonisation tasks between the participating agencies is ensured and the common documentation of the data supported.
l14Y interoperability platform: technical core of the NaDB
The I14Y Interoperability Platform (I14Y-IOP) was developed in the first phase of the programme. The I14Y-IOP is Switzerland's national metadata catalogue. It has been productive since 30 June 2021. Details of the data sets and the electronic interfaces (API) facilitate the exchange of data both with and within the federal administration. A directory of government services completes the offer. The relevant agencies remain responsible for the transfer of data and for ensuring that the statutory provisions are respected. Consequently, data sets with limited access are also described on the l14Y interoperability platform. Quality indicators provide indications about the data's potential for reuse. Duplicate surveys can thus be avoided, reducing the burden on citizens, businesses and the federal administration.
Valuable findings from the specific pilot projects
Within the framework of the NaDB, various pilot projects have been implemented for the standardisation and harmonisation of data in different subject areas. In this way, professional activities should be recorded uniformly in the Swiss occupation nomenclature. For inpatient health provision, the definition of a uniform standard is planned for hospitals' transaction data (including economic and medical classification systems) and for the corresponding reference data. Finally, it will be verified how the burden can be reduced on businesses in the wage statistics and how multiple surveys can be avoided in the area of taxes.
The development work carried out so far by the FSO, various offices and the departments has already sustainably increased the visibility and interoperability of the data. In the second phase of the NaDB programme, the harmonisation and standardisation of administrative data is now being driven forward. This will initially be in the areas of health, energy, agriculture, security, mobility and infrastructure.
