Mehring wants to abolish faxes in Bavaria's authorities

Digital Minister - Mehring wants to abolish faxes in Bavaria's authorities

Bavaria's Digital Minister Fabian Mehring (Free Voters) wants to ban the fax from public administration. "The fax is no longer up to date and is a relic from another era," he said according to a statement from his ministry on Wednesday, which was headlined "Mehring has had enough of faxing".

He wants documents in Bavarian authorities to be transmitted only in digital form instead of by fax machine after a certain transitional period.

"Regardless of the problems with data protection, fax machines have long been a symbol of backwardness in the digital transformation for many people," said the minister. The "Augsburger Allgemeine" had previously reported. "Our Bavaria is a high-tech state. We should therefore lead the way nationwide and be the first federal state to pull the plug on the fax in public administration."

The Federal Office of Administration in Cologne stated that it saw no legal obstacles to abolishing the fax in terms of procedural law. "In our opinion, better digital alternatives already exist." The authority cited mailboxes in the federal portal and various official e-access points, for example. However, there are special technical requirements to ensure the necessary legal certainty. Standard commercial emails do not meet the formal requirements because neither the sender nor the receipt can be verified. As far as deadlines, verifiability of delivery and the like were concerned, electronic communication was subject to stricter requirements.

Mehring argued that millions of people in Bavaria have long since organized their lives largely digitally, shop online, plan their vacations online and also search for their favourite restaurant online. "It is all the more dangerous for our democracy if the impression is created that the state cannot keep up with the future and remains stuck in the past."

The minister therefore wants to present a catalog of measures to the Bavarian cabinet next year. According to the ministry, the fax ban is part of a strategy with which the Digital Minister intends to further accelerate the digitalization of the administration in the new year. According to the Free Voter politician, Bavaria is the first federal state to ban fax machines from its authorities and administrations across the board. In the summer, the state government stated that the number of fax machines in its administrations was just under 4,000.

"If people are to trust the state, its administration must not be bureaucratic, dusty or antiquated. Instead, we need to create an innovative state that operates in line with the times and is perceived as modern, so that citizens can identify with it in a positive way. Fax machines from the last century do not fit in with this," said Mehring.

Faxes still play a particularly important role in the judiciary today. The Bavarian Judges' Association welcomed Mehring's initiative: "In times of advancing digitalization, the fax machine has in fact become increasingly less important in the judiciary, for example due to the electronic inbox and the progressive introduction of electronic files. The lack of guaranteed data security when sending documents by fax is a particular cause for concern," said the association in response to an inquiry.

However, the abolition of the fax machine for the judiciary in the interest of granting justice presupposes that everyone seeking access to the courts has the appropriate technical means. "Access to the courts must not be dependent on the possibly still limited technical capabilities of citizens seeking justice."