The Civil Register, which officially began operations on 3 May 2005, is at the heart of the state's administration. It covers all records of personal status for citizens of the Republic of Slovenia, recording all civil events (births, marriages, deaths) and other changes in civil status (acknowledgement of paternity, adoption, name changes, guardianship, withdrawal and return of legal capacity, acquisition and deprivation of citizenship, etc.). "With the Civil Registry, Slovenia established complete records of the personal status of citizens of the Republic of Slovenia in one place, data is in accordance with the legislation, and, in addition, it manages civil registration and other internal affairs, such as identification and travel documents, used in other matters, for taxes to social services and health care," said Stane Štefančič, CEO of Genis. At the same time, the Civil Register also represents the register of births, marriages and deaths recorded for foreign nationals living in the Republic of Slovenia.

Slovenia is one of the few countries with such organized registers. Sophisticated technological solutions and quality IT development partners support essential government information systems, such as the Civil Register, Central Population Register, Register of Citizenship and other established entities, enabling the transition to a new generation of services for citizens and business. "Europe, and practically the whole world, has recognised our importance in developing public administration, our knowledge in this area is highly exportable. However, there is still a lot more work. Through such achievements and new approaches to service delivery, we must create a public administration that will even more effectively serve citizens and companies," emphasised Stane Štefančič. After a decade of use, the Civil Register represents a strategic investment by the Republic of Slovenia, delivering a cost-effective response to the challenging developments for a new generation of electronic services for citizens, business and various government institutions.  

Additional background
As stated by the Ministry of the Interior, the 10-year exercise in using an electronically managed Civil Register has shown a number of benefits, arising from the collation of facts and data covering personal status into a unified computerised database, information on civil facts can be captured to nearest detail. Rationalization and modernization of data entry in the register is guaranteed. There are also appropriate guarantees for information privacy, protecting data from destruction and abuse, permanent archiving of the Civil Register, there are also appropriate mechanisms for preventing unauthorized access or illegal use of the data.

Introduction of the registry also permits elimination of local jurisdiction, in this way obtaining statements and certificates from the Civil Register becomes significantly easier for customers. Scaffolded by these advanced technologies, the Civil Register is integral to e-government, and by linking with other registers, results in good and advanced flow of data. Through computerisation of the Civil Register, and by linking records between different operators, it has also reduced the number of issued statements and other Central Register certificates. Parties needing to exercise their legal rights with other official bodies, no longer need to include certificates from the responsible public authorities, as these can automatically be obtained from official records.

Nevertheless, managing the Civil Register presents challenges for the future, which are associated with rationalising data entry to the register; this requires establishing electronic links between the Civil Register and other competent authorities to decide on amendments to the personal status of an individual. The latter could replace physical documents, which still represent the basis for the entry of the civil information. Further rationalisation should allow links to be established with organisations who may give notification of death (hospitals, health centres, homes for the elderly, etc.), social services centres (for acknowledgement of paternity, adoptions, guardianship) and the courts (for entries concerning annulment of marriage, entries with regard to legal capacity, parental rights, judicial inquests, findings and challenges to paternity, and dispensations or obstacles to marriage).