The Federal Council wishes to introduce a national address service in 2025

Bern, 10.05.2023 - The Federal Council wants to simplify address management and to this end, create a national address service (NAS). At its meeting of 10 May 2023, it approved a dispatch to Parliament on the new Federal Act on the national system for the retrieval of addresses of natural persons. The national address service will enable certain administrative offices and third parties with a legal mandate to retrieve the address data of the resident population throughout Switzerland. Address retrieval is currently only possible at communal or cantonal level.

The national address service (NAS) will simplify administrative processes and lend greater efficiency to public services. For the NAS, the Federal Statistical Office (FSO) uses the address-relevant parts of individual data provided on a quarterly basis to the FSO under the Register Harmonisation Act (RHA) from the communal and cantonal population registers. In the NAS, data are completed with change notifications updated on a daily basis. This eCH (government standards) notification type is already used when data from the communal and cantonal population registers are communicated to the federal population registers.

Access to the NAS is restricted according to data protection and depending on the purpose for which data is to be used. Users can only obtain data in order to fulfil their defined, statutory mandate. The FSO issues access rights and verifies compliance with the terms of use.

Efficient, modern data management
The NAS offers multiple simplifications for address management in the administrative agencies at all three levels of government as well as for authorised third parties with a statutory mandate. Reductions will be achieved, for example, in payment losses due to undeliverable invoices to persons who can no longer be found, in returns in written correspondence and in the effort required for setting up and maintaining interfaces as well as for data management. In addition, the NAS brings added value in the form of improved data quality, more uniform administrative practice as well as improved transparency of data use by the authorities.

Construction of the NAS is a project of Digital Public Services Switzerland (DPSS) by whom it is funded. The start is planned for 2025. The operating costs of the NAS will be fully covered by user-paid fees. The residents' register office of the communes, which manages address data in the population registers, will be able to use the NAS free of charge.


Address for enquiries

Manuela Lenk, FSO, Interoperability and Registers Division,
tel.: +41 58 469 28 41,
e-mail: manuela.lenk@bfs.admin.ch

FSO Media Service,
tel.: +41 58 463 60 13,
e-mail: media@bfs.admin.ch


Publisher

The Federal Council
https://www.admin.ch/gov/en/start.html

General Secretariat FDHA
http://www.edi.admin.ch

https://www.admin.ch/content/gov/en/start/documentation/media-releases.msg-id-95027.html