18 | Annual Report 2019 decision-making systems, robot software and other artificial intelligence systems. Modern technology brings significant benefits to citizens as well as to public administration in many ways. Automated case processing systems where computers entirely or partly make administrative decisions can actually make the case processing cheaper and quicker. Depending on the type of individual case, digitally generated decisions can also be of higher quality and be more predictable. So, there is no doubt that digitisation of the public sector offers immense potential for our welfare society and thus for all of us. However, the rapid development does not only contain positive gains but also challenges. IT systems with problems from day one The Ombudsman’s core task is to ensure the individual citizen’s legal rights when meeting the public administration. This also applies as far as the new digital reality is concerned. At the same time, digital self-service solutions can also improve the quality of the public administration’s service to citizens in a number of cases. We can benefit from a public administration with night and day opening hours where we can take care of our unsettled matters with public authorities via the internet whenever convenient for us. The general administrative law requirements and principles apply irrespective of manual or digital case processing. It is therefore the individual authority’s responsibility when the case processing is digitised fully or partially within a field that new digital solutions meet the requirements so that citizens maintain their legal rights (Case No. 2018-1). Digital solutions can also improve everyday life for citizens at many public institutions such as schools, kindergartens, hospitals and residential care homes. The school teacher can, for example, by means of digital teaching aids target the teaching of the individual pupil to a higher degree. Modern health technology enables patients to self-monitor their disease in their own home. Unfortunately, the Parliamentary Ombudsman has found a number of times within recent years that public digital solutions did not comply with administrative law requirements. Good digital solutions can also enhance the efficiency of public administration and thereby release significant resources, including the socalled ‘warm hands’ and a more citizen-friendly welfare. At the same time, digitisation has frequently proven to be an efficient tool when rethinking processes and working procedures in the public sector. The system defects have been manifold. For instance, there have been problems with incomplete dating of letters, defects in relation to the digital systems’ ability to retrieve relevant cases which should, among other things, ensure uniform practice, defects in securing original contents of documents and authenticity (Case No. 2015-22) as well as insufficient record-keeping (Case No. 2018-29). Just like the case about the woman who wanted to help her mother, it has unfortunately also been found several times that a digital solution did not comply with section 8 of the Public Administra-

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