FDP on digital affairs

The FDP wants to make Schleswig-Holstein a digital model region and make administrative processes fully digital. To that end, written-form requirements would be dropped as a rule, pilot projects funded and municipalities supported with a special program.

The FDP wants public offices to work digitally. People should be able to apply without paper or a signature. The state should give towns money to help with this. Good example projects should get funding.

The Online Access Act (Onlinezugangsgesetz) should be implemented on time by the end of 2022. For municipalities, the FDP plans a special program called DIGI.SH that also funds pilot projects, plus support for local digital strategies through urban development funding. Together with ITV.SH, a municipal app store would be set up where IT firms offer vetted standard solutions. Internal processes such as applying for and settling funding programs would also run fully digitally. According to the platform, such investments do not always bring quick savings but do bring quality and competitiveness.

The FDP wants to create a ministry with clear responsibilities for digitalization. In addition, the state parliament would get its own digitalization committee to pool parliament's digital expertise.

The FDP wants a separate ministry for digital matters. It should steer the government's digital work. The state parliament should also get its own group for this topic.

The ministry would rest on six areas of responsibility: digital strategy and core projects, steering the IT architecture and the departments' specialist projects, central organizational development of the state administration, leading large IT tenders, operating and servicing state IT, and a think tank for digital innovation. The platform argues that digitalization needs a high priority within the state government.

The FDP wants to continue the fiber rollout so that almost all households can get a gigabit connection by 2025. Mobile dead zones would be closed, 5G networks built and public Wi-Fi expanded. Chinese suppliers such as Huawei and ZTE would be excluded from building the networks.

The FDP wants very fast internet for almost all households by 2025. Cell phone service should also work everywhere. Public offices should offer free Wi-Fi. Companies close to China's government should not help build the networks.

Funding for the Breitband-Kompetenzzentrum (broadband competence center) would continue beyond 2023. The FDP wants to allow alternative cable-laying methods, simplify funding applications, speed up planning and offer easily accessible loans for network expansion. 5G would be built mainly along highways and rail lines, and gaps in the 4G network closed together with the operators. State agencies would offer public Wi-Fi, with support for municipalities and volunteer Freifunk initiatives. Now that all schools and universities have fiber connections, every classroom and lecture hall should get gigabit Wi-Fi. The platform justifies excluding Huawei and ZTE with the security of the 5G network.

The FDP wants to make the public IT service provider Dataport more competitive and open it to third-party providers and small IT firms. Public applications should be based on open standards and interfaces, and open-source software should be used where it makes economic and technical sense.

Dataport runs the computer systems for public offices. The FDP wants Dataport to become faster and more open. Small IT firms should also be able to get government contracts. Software in public offices should work well together and not depend on one supplier.

According to the platform, Dataport has capacity problems and carries out projects too slowly. As a shareholder, the state should press Dataport to work more as a platform and let third parties host their solutions without discrimination. Contract awards would be simplified and split into suitable lots so that solo self-employed people and small companies can take part. Open standards are meant to ensure that systems work together and that the state does not depend on single vendors. When switching to open source, the FDP wants to weigh added benefit, usability and investments already made.

The FDP wants to update the state's AI strategy and push the practical use of artificial intelligence through pilot projects. It also plans numerous digital trial projects together with municipalities, universities and the IT industry. The platform sees AI as a major opportunity for research and business in the state.

The FDP wants to support artificial intelligence in the state. The short name is AI. AI means computer programs that learn on their own. The state should test many new digital ideas in projects. Towns, universities and companies should take part.

The state government's existing AI strategy is to be developed further and carried out, including applications that help base government decisions more firmly on evidence. For trial projects, the FDP wants to use or create experimentation clauses. Examples in the platform include traffic-responsive signals, real-time traffic counts, blockchain solutions for digital vehicle registrations, fishing licenses and diplomas, and linking private solar installations. For digital school report cards, the state is to join an existing project under the Onlinezugangsgesetz (Online Access Act) before the end of 2022.

The FDP wants to set up a data protection cockpit where citizens and businesses can see what data the public administration holds on them and how it is used. It also plans an easy-to-read data protection traffic-light label for public-sector applications and a stronger state data protection center. The platform says trust in how data is handled is essential.

The FDP wants a data protection cockpit. There, people can see what data public offices hold about them. They can also see what the offices use it for. A traffic-light label should show how well an app protects data. This should help people trust digital services.

The traffic-light label is to be developed with the Unabhängiges Landeszentrum für Datenschutz (ULD, the state's independent data protection authority) and applied to all public-sector applications. The ULD would be strengthened mainly in advising and design, meaning preventive data protection. The FDP backs closer cooperation among Germany's data protection authorities so that rules are interpreted consistently. It wants to rebalance data protection against users' own interest in having their data used, and to lead the public debate on this, including on the so-called privacy paradox.

The FDP wants public offices and services to stay reachable for everyone, including people without suitable devices or technical skills. The administration is to remain available in person, while digital services become easier to use and accessible.

The FDP wants everyone to be able to reach public offices. This should work without a computer and without tech skills. People should still be able to talk to an office in person. Digital services should work well on phones. People with disabilities should be able to use them too.

The platform names mobile citizen offices and self-service kiosks, which are to be developed further and put to use. Technologies such as chatbots would be added. Digital processes are to be designed for the devices people actually use, which the FDP says currently means a mobile-first approach. Websites and services are to be built to existing standards so that people with disabilities can use them.

The FDP wants to continue the fiber-optic rollout and declare it a basic service. Municipalities are also to get support with digitalization, medical care, volunteering, mobility and local development so that rural life stays attractive.

The FDP wants fast fiber internet everywhere. It should count as a basic service. Towns should also get help with doctors and transport. This should keep life in the countryside good.

Municipal digitalization plans are to be supported through urban development funding. For basic medical care, municipalities should be able to develop their own new care models. Alongside public transit, the FDP wants to promote other mobility options and build charging and fueling infrastructure across the state. Volunteer and nonprofit institutions are to be preserved and built up. For local development plans, the platform backs sustainability and climate protection but wants municipalities to keep room for housing, business and transport infrastructure.

The FDP wants to turn administrations into service-oriented centers and offer a wide range of electronic government services. Procedures are to become leaner and responsibilities clearer; it does not want to push mergers of local administrative offices or counties.

The FDP wants public offices to offer more online. Forms should be simple and clear. People should see online how far their request has come. Offices and counties should not be merged.

The platform criticizes inconvenient opening hours, long processing times, complicated forms and poorly coordinated stand-alone solutions between county and municipal administrations. Cases that pass through several agencies and levels should be trackable digitally. Services should have few barriers to use, and workflows and guidelines should be transparent. For the state administration, the FDP says it will continue reviewing tasks, avoid creating unnecessary routines and streamline existing procedures.

The FDP wants to switch every court and prosecutor's office in the state to electronic case files by the end of the next legislative term. Court hearings by video conference are to be strengthened.

The FDP wants to make the courts digital. Files should no longer be on paper but on computers. This should be done within the next term. Hearings should be possible by video more often.

Breaks between paper and digital formats in cooperation with judicial, police and administrative authorities and with the legal professions are to be removed as far as possible. All offices are to get the necessary IT equipment and IT staff, and employees are to receive training. Effective prosecution of cybercrime is also to be ensured. For video hearings, the FDP wants to improve the legal and technical conditions and use the federal government's announced digital pact for the judiciary.