Act on the Harmonisation of Official Registers (Cantonal Register Harmonisation Act, kRHG) - Purpose and Scope (LHR)

1. This law aims to simplify data collection for statistics and the exchange of personal data between registers through their harmonization.

2. It applies to the population registers, the voter registers, and other designated official registers at the cantonal and municipal levels.

1. The Government Council may request from the Confederation an enhancement of the structural survey and the thematic sample surveys in connection with a federal census (Art. 8 Census Act).

2. The Government Council shall regulate in implementing provisions, in particular

a. the official registers to which this Act is applicable (Art. 1 para. 2 of this Act);

b. the scope and content of the data that are to be recorded on the cantonal data platform and available in the retrieval or reporting procedure, the compensation for data access by third parties, the deadlines within which the data are to be reported, as well as any data delivery to the Confederation in accordance with Art. 6 para. 2 of this Act;

c. if necessary, the obligation of the resident municipalities to reconcile the data mutually and to also transmit the data of the electoral register to the canton;

d. the compensation of the resident municipalities for the entry and updating of the building and housing identifiers from the Confederation's contribution to the register management of the cantons;

e. the requirements and operational organization of a building and housing register with a street directory;

f. the use of the insurance number (Art. 13 para. 2 and 4 of this Act);

g. the extension of the transitional period (Art. 14 para. 2 of this Act).

1. The Department of Economic Affairs implements the legislation on the harmonization of registers, provided that no other authority or office is designated by cantonal law. It is responsible for the delivery of data to the federal government, coordination, implementation, and quality control of the harmonization of registers. It may engage experts to fulfill its tasks and delegate certain tasks to third parties.

2. It serves as the point of contact for the Federal Statistical Office (FSO) and acts as the cantonal liaison for the conduct of federal censuses.

3. It operates the cantonal data platform through third parties and decides on access rights on a case-by-case basis. Extensions or modifications of the cantonal data platform must be coordinated with the data owners.

1. The cantonal data platform serves as the central administration of personal, building, and housing information. It stores data of natural and legal persons along with their supplementary data, as well as building and housing data.

2. The residents' and citizens' municipalities, cantonal offices, and third parties, insofar as they are entrusted with state tasks, have electronic access through a retrieval process to those data on the cantonal data platform necessary to fulfill their legal responsibilities.

3. The data on the cantonal data platform are made available to municipalities and cantonal authorities free of charge.

1. Parishes are granted electronic access to the data on the cantonal platform required for recording their members, maintaining their voting registers, or fulfilling their ecclesiastical duties as described, in particular, in the parish regulations. The data access also extends to particularly sensitive personal data.

2. The parishes may disclose member data to ecclesiastical institutions for the fulfillment of the ecclesiastical mandate. The ecclesiastical institutions are obliged to comply with the regulations of the Data Protection Act and, in particular

a. to use the received data solely for the intended purpose; and

b. to ensure data security through appropriate data protection infrastructure.

3. In case of violations, the disclosure of data to ecclesiastical institutions may be refused, restricted, or subjected to conditions.

1. The municipal communities maintain the residents' register in accordance with the Residents' Register Ordinance. They are connected to the joint federal information and communication platform and the cantonal data platform.

2. They are obligated to implement the harmonization of attributes in accordance with the Register Harmonization Act as well as the cantonal attributes.

3. Notifications are made in electronic form through the communication means provided by the federal and cantonal authorities.

1. Municipalities undertake the delivery of data to the Federal Statistical Office (FSO) and provide the data to the canton for the cantonal data platform free of charge.

2. The canton may assume responsibility for delivering data to the FSO itself.

3. The delivery of data to the FSO shall occur no later than the last day of the month following the reference date.

1. All changes must be continuously exchanged between the affected residents' registers.

2. The exchange takes place electronically and in encrypted form.

1. All notifications regarding personal, building, and residential data must be continuously exchanged between the affected registers via the cantonal data platform.

1. The authorities responsible for the designated official registers must transfer all data-related changes to the cantonal data platform immediately upon the availability of all data, but no later than ten days.

2. The transfer is carried out exclusively by means of data delivery in electronic form.

3. The destruction of data on the cantonal data platform has no impact on any obligations to maintain or preserve data in other data collections.

1. The provisions of the Residents' Registration Ordinance apply to the provision of information. Otherwise, the disclosure of data to private individuals is prohibited.

2. The authorities responsible for supervising the registers may process or have processed the data from the cantonal data platform and the registers, including particularly sensitive personal data, that they require to fulfill their supervisory duties.

1. The canton and the municipal communes shall bear the costs incurred within their jurisdiction.

2. The canton shall bear the costs for the augmentation of the structural survey and the thematic sample surveys as part of the censuses.

3. The establishment, operation, and expansion of the cantonal data platform shall be financed equally by the canton and the municipal communes.

**1. Municipalities maintain a recognized Building and Housing Register (BHR) with a street directory on a shared data platform, in accordance with federal and cantonal regulations.**

2. They update the Building and Housing Register (BHR) continuously with new constructions, renovations, and building demolitions, and may introduce a physical apartment numbering system, at the expense of the property owners, to determine and update the apartment identifier.

3. In the recognized Building and Housing Register, buildings with and without residential use, temporary accommodations, and special structures are managed in accordance with the definitions and requirements of the characteristic catalog of the federal Building and Housing Register. The cantonal government may prescribe the management of additional characteristics.

1. Organizations and individuals within the meaning of Art. 153c para. 1 lit. a no. 4 AHVG are permitted to systematically use the AHV number to the extent necessary for the fulfillment of their administrative duties. The government council shall determine the entitled organizations and individuals in implementing provisions.

2. The AHV number may only be used and disclosed in relation to tasks and in accordance with the provisions of the AHVG.

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1. Municipalities shall establish the electronic register management as per Art. 5 and the data provision as per Art. 6 of this law by no later than December 31, 2009.

2. The government council may extend the transition period.

1. The amendment of existing law is regulated in the appendix.

1. The implementation provisions regarding the execution of the 2000 federal census dated June 8, 1999, are repealed.

1. The government council determines when this law shall enter into force. It is subject to an optional referendum.

2. This law is to be brought to the attention of the Federal Department of Home Affairs. Section II of the annex (amendment to the Voting Ordinance) is subject to approval by the federal government.