Public authorities to get free-of-charge access to basic data on persons

As of 1 January 2018, public authorities will be able to retrieve basic data on persons from the new platform, the Data Distributor, free of charge. As part of the annual budget agreement for 2018, the Danish government, Local Government Denmark, and Danish Regions have agreed to redeem data from the Central Person Register for public users.

In Denmark, each person has a unique personal registration number called a CPR number. CPR is an abbreviation for Central Person Register. The CPR number is essential in relation to any contact with the Danish authorities and especially in connection to tax and social security issues.

Today, public authorities pay for their consumption of CPR data. This means that each individual authority must settle its consumption of CPR data. This will no longer be necessary in the future.

On the Data Distributor platform, public authorities will be able to gain free-of-charge access to the CPR data they need from the three key services: (i) CPR-Extractions; (ii) CPR-Direct, and (iii) CPR-Services. This will encourage public authorities to use the platform.

In order to give users enough time to become familiar with the Data Distributor, the current system of CPR data distribution will be phased out over an eight-year period. During this period, public authorities will be invoiced in the same way as today if they choose to continue retrieving data from the current system.

The agreement will be financed by the municipalities and the regions via the block grant, a central government lump sum awarded to regions and municipalities. Central government authorities will contribute via the Finance Act.

Private users of CPR data – and certain independent publicly owned enterprises – fall outside the scope of the agreement and will therefore have to pay for CPR data retrieved from the Data Distributor. The current rules and regulations governing the use of CPR data are not affected by the new agreement.