(de-news.net) – The Federal Cabinet has initiated legislation to introduce a digital version of the police clearance certificate, thereby moving the document beyond its exclusive availability in paper form. Under the proposal, applicants who have established secure electronic access to public administrative services would be eligible to obtain the certificate in digital form. Responsibility for issuing and distributing the electronic document would lie with the Federal Office for Justics, situating the reform within a broader, ongoing shift toward digitized administrative procedures and streamlined public services.
The police clearance certificate functions as an official verification of whether an individual has prior criminal convictions. Its presentation is required in a range of contexts, including specific forms of voluntary engagement, employment in positions involving heightened security or trust, and situations in which submission is mandated by statutory provisions. With roughly five million certificates issued each year across Germany, the document occupies a central position in both professional qualification processes and civic participation, illustrating the scale and practical importance of the proposed reform.
Justice Minister Stefanie Hubig (SPD) framed the digitalization of the police clearance certificate as a representative example of effective public-sector modernization. From this perspective, expanding digital access to a document that is routinely required in both employment-related and voluntary contexts is intended to ease administrative burdens for citizens while advancing the state’s wider digital transformation agenda. The legislative package’s further elements, including provisions designed to facilitate online notarial procedures in company and registry law, point to an integrated approach to administrative reform that extends beyond a single measure and seeks to modernize multiple areas of public administration in parallel.
At the same cabinet meeting, two additional draft laws presented by Environment Minister Carsten Schneider (SPD) also received approval. One of these initiatives seeks to impose more stringent emissions thresholds on industrial facilities, thereby strengthening environmental protection standards. The other aims to revise procedural rules so that legal actions filed by environmental organizations against large-scale infrastructure projects would no longer automatically result in a suspension of those projects, altering the balance between environmental litigation and project implementation.
