Decree 87/2020/ND-CP on electronic civil status database, online civil status registration

DECREE

Providing regulations on electronic civil status database and online civil status registration

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Pursuant to the Law on Government Organization dated June 19, 2015;

Pursuant to the Law on Civil Status dated November 20, 2014;

Pursuant to the Law on E-Transactions dated November 29, 2005;

Pursuant to the Law on Information Technology dated June 29, 2006;

Pursuant to the Law on Cyberinformation Security dated November 19, 2015;

At the proposal of the Minister of Justice;

The Government hereby promulgates the Decree on providing regulations on electronic civil status database and online civil status registration.

Chapter I
GENERAL PROVISIONS

Article 1. Scope of regulation and subjects of application

1. This Decree prescribes the creation, management, updating, exploitation and use of electronic civil status database; connection and share of data between the electronic civil status database and national population database, national public service portal, provincial-level public service portal and single-window e-information system, and other databases of ministries, sectors and localities; grant of civil status extract copies, certification of civil status information; online civil status registration.

2. This Decree applies to ministries, ministerial-level agencies and central state agencies; People’s Committees at all levels, domestic civil status registration or management agencies and Vietnamese overseas missions; organizations and individuals involved in the creation, management, updating, exploitation and use of the electronic civil status database.

Article 2. Interpretation of terms

 1. Electronic civil status database means a database created on the basis of computerization of civil status registration work in order to archive civil status information of individuals that are registered in accordance with law provisions, on Internet environment by digital devices, through the shared electronic civil status registration and management software.

2. Shared electronic civil status registration and management software is a platform of the electronic civil status database, including civil status registration and management software, service and application software created, designed and provided by the Ministry of Justice for civil status registration or management agencies to register civil status, create, update, digitize, standardize and manage civil status data, exploit and use the electronic civil status database.

The shared electronic civil status registration and management software is connected with the provincial-level single-window e-information system; through the provincial-level single-window e-information system to connect with the national public service portal and provincial-level public service portal to support the receipt and settlement, follow the receipt, settlement and processing result of administrative procedures in civil status sector which are carried out by online registration.

3. Agencies managing the electronic civil status database include civil status registration agencies, the Ministry of Justice, Departments of Justice of provinces and centrally-run cities (hereinafter referred to as provincial-level Department of Justice), Justice Divisions of districts, towns and provincial cities (hereinafter referred to as district-level Justice Division).

4. Full name includes last name, first name and middle name (if any).

Article 3. Information in the electronic civil status database

1. Information in the electronic civil status database includes:

a) Civil status information of individuals, which is established when making birth registration, including: Full name; date of birth; gender; birthplace; ethnicity, citizenship, native place, personal identification numbers of the person whose birth is registered; full name, date of birth, ethnicity, citizenship, native place, place of residence, personal identification numbers, personal papers of the parent of the person whose birth is registered; full name, personal identification numbers, personal papers of the birth registrant, relationship with the person whose birth is registered; registration number, serial number of the civil status book, date of registration, name of the birth registration agency; full name and position of the person signing on the birth certificate;

b) Civil status information of individuals who are Vietnamese citizens shall be established when it is recorded that the birth has been settled at a foreign competent agency in the civil status book (hereinafter referred to as the birth recording) includes: Full name; date of birth; gender; birthplace; ethnicity, citizenship, native place, and personal identification numbers, personal papers of the person whose birth is recorded; full name, date of birth, ethnicity, citizenship, native place, personal identification numbers, and personal papers of the parent of the person whose birth is recorded; name of the paper type, serial number, date of issuance, name of the agency or country issuing the civil status papers that is the birth recording agency; information about the birth registrant; full name, personal identification numbers and personal papers of the person requesting for birth recording; registration number, serial number of the book, date of registration, name of the agency recording birth; full name and position of the signee of the extract copy who records the birth on the civil status book;

c) Other civil status information of individuals that is registered in accordance with law provisions shall continue to be updated in their civil status information established under Point a and Point b of this Clause, including: information about the marriage registration; grant of the marital status certificate; guardianship; parent and child recognition; child adoption; civil status change or correction; civil status information addition; ethnicity re-determination, death; recording in the civil status book civil status changes according to a judgment or decision of a competent state agency; recording in the civil status book the civil status matters of Vietnamese citizens already settled at competent foreign agencies;

d) A scanned copy or photocopy of the corresponding civil status book page for civil status information that is digitized and standardized as prescribed at Point b, Clause 2 of this Article.

2. Information in the electronic civil status database is established from the following sources:

a) Civil status information of individuals that is registered through the shared electronic civil status registration and management software;

b) Civil status information that is digitized and standardized from the civil status books;

c) Information connected and shared from the national population database;

d) Civil status information shared, converted and standardized from previously developed electronic civil status database and software.

Article 4. Principles of creation, updating, management, exploitation and use of electronic civil status database; online civil status registration

1. The electronic civil status database is created and managed centrally and consistently from central to local levels.

2. The electronic civil status database shall be updated in a timely, sufficient and accurate manner; its operation shall be maintained stably and smoothly to meet requirements for exploitation and use of agencies, organizations and individuals in accordance with law provisions.

3. The electronic civil status database shall be archived and kept confidentiality, ensuring information safety.

4. The creation, updating, management, exploitation and use of the electronic civil status database; online civil status registration must comply with the Law on Civil Status, guiding documents; laws on Vietnam E-Government Architecture; regulations on management, connection and share of digital data of state agencies; regulations on ensuring the protection of private life, personal secrets, family secrets and other relevant laws.

Article 5. Prohibited acts

1. Providing untruthful information when conducting online civil status registration.

2. Unduly accessing in the electronic civil status database; falsifying information, changing erasing or destroying illegally information in the electronic civil status database; exploiting, using or disclosing information from the electronic civil status database in contravention of regulations, infringing the rights in term of private life, personal secrets and family secrets.

3. Destroying information infrastructure or obstructing the stable and smooth operation process of the electronic civil status database.

Chapter II

CREATION, UPDATING, EXPLOITATION AD USE OF THE ELECTRONIC CIVIL STATUS DATABASE

Article 6. Creation of the electronic civil status database

1. The creation of the electronic civil status database includes the following activities:

a) Ensuring the technical information infrastructure;

b) Designing and organizing the database;

c) Deploying, upgrading, developing, and expanding the shared electronic civil status registration and management software;

d) Collecting, standardizing and entering data;

dd) Archiving, keeping confidential, ensuring the safety and security of information for the database; having solutions to ensure data integrity, non-repudiation;

e) Training, retraining, fostering, organizing the personnel apparatus, operating, managing, updating, exploiting and using the database;

g) Operating and correcting the database;

h) Other activities as prescribed by law.

2. The system structure design of the electronic civil status database must meet standards on databases and technical, information technology standards and regulations and economic - technology norms; compatibility, integration, information sharing and scalability of data fields in system design and application software; ensuring the expansion, upgrading and development.

Article 7. Updating data in the electronic civil status database

1. Information to be updated in the electronic civil status database includes civil status information of individuals and their parents, spouses upon information changing due to the marriage, civil status change or correction, civil status information addition, ethnicity re-determination; parent and child recognition; guardianship; child adoption; death; recording in the civil status book civil status changes according to a judgment or decision of a competent state agency; recording in the civil status book the civil status matters of Vietnamese citizens already settled at competent foreign agencies.

2. Responsibilities for data updating

a) Civil status registration agencies shall use the shared electronic civil status registration and management software to update data as prescribed in Clause 1 of this Article.

b) Upon receiving civil status papers or information through the electronic system of civil status information changes as prescribed in Clause 1 of this Article, civil status registration or management agencies shall update changes in the civil status database if such civil status information changes have not yet been updated through the shared electronic civil status registration and management software, record changed civil status information in the corresponding civil status book immediately in the working day. If they receive civil status papers or information after 15:00, such procedures may be carried out in the working day following the date of receipt.

3. Heads of civil status registration agencies shall be responsible for regularly inspecting and supervising the data updating by their agencies; the superior civil status registration agencies shall be responsible for regularly inspecting and supervising the data updating by the lower-level civil status registration agencies.

Article 8. Exploitation and use of the electronic civil status database

1. Civil status registration agencies shall exploit and use the electronic civil status database to conduct civil status registration within their competence; grant civil status extract copies; marital status certificates; make statistics on civil status registration and carry out other state management activities related to civil status in accordance with law provisions.

2. The Ministry of Justice shall exploit and use the electronic civil status database to grant the civil status extract copies and certification of civil status information for citizens whose civil status information is updated in the electronic civil status database; deploy the data connection and share between other database of the ministries, sectors and localities; carry out other state management activities in the field of civil status in accordance with law provisions.

3. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs shall exploit and use the electronic civil status database to grant civil status extract copies, certification of civil status information for citizens whose civil status is registered at the overseas missions; carry out other state management activities in the field of civil status in accordance with law provisions.

4. The provincial-level Departments of Justice and district-level Justice Divisions shall exploit and use the electronic civil status database to grant civil status extract copies, certification of civil status information for citizens whose civil status is registered at the local civil status registration agencies; carry out other state management activities in the field of civil status in accordance with law provisions.

5. Agencies and organizations requesting for grant of civil status information from the electronic civil status database to serve the state management shall send their requests to the competent agencies as prescribed in Clauses 2, 3 and 4 of this Article.

6. Individuals requesting for exploiting their own civil status information archived in the electronic civil status database shall send the request for grant of civil status extract copies, certification of civil status information to the competent civil status registration or management agencies.

Article 9. Responsibilities of organizations, agencies and individuals requesting for exploitation and use of the electronic civil status database

1. To comply with the law on civil status and current laws on use of information on the Internet; exploitation and use of data on the Internet environment; protection of private life, personal and family secrets.

2. Organizations and individuals requesting for the grant of civil status extract copies, certification of civil status information, exploitation and use of information in the civil status database must pay charges in accordance with law provisions.

Article 10. Connection and share of information between the electronic civil status database and the national population database and other databases of ministries, sectors and localities

1. The connection and share of information between the electronic civil status database and the national population database shall be implemented through data sharing services.

2. The electronic civil status database shall provide the following civil status information of individuals for the national population database:

a) Information upon birth registration, including full name, date of birth, gender, native place, ethnicity, citizenship of the person whose birth is recorded; full name, date of birth or only year of birth, ethnicity, citizenship, personal identification numbers or people's identity card numbers, place of residence of the parent of the person whose birth is recorded; place of birth registration;

b) Marital status information, inducing Marriage registration information; information recorded in the book of the marital status changes according to a judgment or decision of a competent state agency; information recorded in the civil status book of the marriage, divorce and marriage cancellation of a Vietnamese citizen already settled at a competent foreign agency;

c) Information about the civil status change or correction; civil status information addition; ethnicity re-determination, death; recording in the civil status book civil status changes according to a judgment or decision of a competent state agency; recording in the civil status book the civil status matters of Vietnamese citizens already settled at competent foreign agencies;

d) Information about guardianship registration and termination;

dd) Information about the declaration or cancellation of declaration of a person to be missing; declaration or cancellation of declaration of a person to be dead;

e) Death registration information.

3. The national population database shall provide the following information for the electronic civil status database:

a) Personal identification numbers at the same time of carrying out the birth registration on the shared electronic civil status registration and management software;

b) Information about full name, personal identification numbers or people's identity card numbers, place of birth registration, date of birth, gender, native place, ethnicity, citizenship, marital status, place of residence, current place of residence, date of missing or death; full name, personal identification numbers or people's identity card numbers, ethnicity and citizenship of the parent or spouse or legal representative of the person born before January 01, 2016, which is collected in the national population database for the electronic civil status database to compare and update civil status information.

4. The connection and share of data between the electronic civil status database and other databases of the ministries, sectors and localities shall be implemented by default in accordance with the law on management, connection and share of digital data by state agencies, on the basis of the consistency between the Ministry of Justice and the managing agency about the scope, forms, structure of the connected data, responsibilities of parities in ensuring information safety and security and protecting private life, personal and family secrets.

Article 11. Process of connection and share of information between the electronic civil status database and the national population database

1. Upon carrying out procedures for birth registration for a Vietnamese citizen, information specified at Point a, Clause 2, Article 10 of this Decree shall be transmitted to the national population database by the electronic civil status database. The national population database shall grant the personal identification numbers, return results to the electronic civil status database and save the citizen information in the national population database. Information shall only be saved in the national population database when there are no duplicates.

2. After completing the civil status registration, if there are any changes to the birth registration information of an individual, the electronic civil status database shall transmit information specified at Point b, c, d, dd and e, Clause 2, Article 10 of this Decree to the national population database for updating.

3. The national population database shall provide information specified in Clause 3, Article 10 of this Decree to the electronic civil status database upon request of the civil status registration or management agency from the shared electronic civil status registration and management software, through data sharing services.

4. The Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Public Security shall be responsible for guiding the agency managing the national population database and the agency managing the electronic civil status database to inspect, verify and ensure the consistent information between the two databases, ensuring the paper dossiers and papers of individuals related to the birth registration information must be consistent with the birth registration contents of such individuals in accordance with Clause 3, Article 14 of the Law on Civil Status.

Chapter III

ONLINE CIVIL STATUS REGISTRATION, MANAGEMENT OF CIVIL STATUS BOOKS, GRANTS OF CIVIL STATUS EXTRACT COPIES AND WRITTEN CERTIFICATION OF CIVIL STATUS INFORMATION

Article 12. Receipt and settlement of requests for online civil status registration

1. The person requesting for online civil status registration shall access the national public service portal, provincial-level public service portal to register his/her account and verify the user according to instructions. After successfully logging in his/her account, the person requesting for online civil status registration shall provide information according to the electronic form, enclosed with the photocopies or electronic copies of papers and documents as prescribed; pay charges and fees through the online payment function or other methods according to law provisions.

2. After completing the dossier submission, the person requesting for online civil status registration shall be granted with one administrative procedure dossier code to follow and check the dossier processing or to log in to complete the dossier upon request of the civil status registration agency.

The person requesting for civil status registration shall be responsible for storing and keeping confidentiality of such code.

3. Upon receiving the dossier of request for online civil status registration, the competent civil status registration agency shall check the completeness and validity of the dossier immediately in the working day:

a) If the dossier is incomplete or unsuitable, requester shall be required to supplement and complete necessary papers;

b) If the dossier is complete and suitable as prescribed by law, it shall receive and send the notice on result return schedule made according to the form via email or send a message of the result return schedule via mobile phone to the requester;

c) The dossier of civil status registration shall only be officially received for processing on the online civil status registration software after it is completed, supplemented to ensure the completeness and validity according to law regulations and fees and charges have been already paid as prescribed.

Time limit to processing an administrative procedure starts from the time of sending the notice of result return schedule or sending the message of the result return schedule to the requester.

d) In case where the inspection and verification is required or the civil status registration result could not be returned on time due to other reasons, the civil status registration agency shall send an apology slip and reschedule the return of the result via email or send a text message via mobile phone to the person requesting for civil status registration, clearly stating the reason for the delay in returning the result and the appointment time to return the result.

4. The person requesting for civil status registration shall receive his/her civil status registration result by one of the following form:

a) Electronic civil status papers sent via email or electronic data management storage of such organization or individual;

b) Electronic civil status papers sent to the digital device, using the appropriate data transmission methods which ensure information safety and security;

c) Civil status papers sent via post offices;

d) Civil status papers granted at the civil status registration agency.

In case of receiving result via postal office, the requester must specify the address to receive the result, select the form of guaranteed postal delivery service and pay a service charge to the postal service provider when receiving the result.

5. Civil status matters in which the requester is required to present at the civil status registration agency to give signature in the civil status book and receive the result include: birth declaration; marriage; guardianship; parent and child recognition; civil status change or correction; ethnicity re-determination, civil status information addition; death declaration; in such cases, the requester may only receive the result according to the method specified at Point d, Clause 4 of this Article. When receiving the result at the civil status registration agency, the requester must submit and produce papers and documents which are components of the dossier of civil status registration as prescribed by the law on civil status.

For civil status matters in which the requester is not required to present at the civil status registration agency to give signature in the civil status book and receive result, but he/she is required to produce or submit papers and documents that are components of the dossier of civil status registration as prescribed by the law on civil status, including certification of civil status information; recording in the civil status book the events of birth; marriage; divorce; marriage cancellation; guardianship; parent or child recognition; parent or child determination; child adoption; civil status change; and death of Vietnamese citizens already settled at competent foreign agencies, the requester may choose to receive the result according to one of the methods specified in Clause 4 of this Article but must produce or submit papers and documents as prescribed before receiving the result.

In case where the copies or papers other than personal papers are required, and the requester has had the electronic copies of such papers or they have been stored in the electronic civil status database, he/she is not required to submit or produce such papers.

6. Electronic forms of civil status papers promulgated by the Ministry of Justice, that provide civil status information or sources of civil status information of individuals. shall be valid as civil status papers. Agencies and organizations shall be responsible for accepting and using, not requesting individuals to submit or produce civil status papers for comparison.

Article 13. Grant of civil status extract copies from the electronic civil status database, certification of civil status information

1. Competent agencies specified in Clauses 1, 2, 3 and 4, Article 8 of this Decree shall grant the civil status extract copies upon requests of individuals, regardless of the places where the civil status registration is carried out or the places of residence of the requesters.

2. Competent agencies specified in Clauses 2, 3 and 4, Article 8 of this Decree shall grant the certification of civil status information for those who request for exploiting information from their multiple civil status registrations or certification of various civil status information; agencies and organizations requesting for exploiting many civil status information of a person or civil status information of many persons.

3. The persons requesting for certification of civil status information must provide information according to the electronic forms, enclosed with the photocopies or scan copies of papers and documents related to the request for civil status certification in case of submitting online dossiers.

In case of submitting dossiers directly at the civil status registration agencies or sending dossiers via postal offices, the requesters must submit the declaration for civil status certification according to the form, produce the originals or certified copies of papers and documents related to the request for civil status certification.

Within 03 working days from the date of receiving the dossiers, the competent civil status registration or management agencies shall check dossiers, compare information in the electronic civil status database, and send written certifications of civil status information to the requesters in case the requested information is correct. If examination and verification is needed, the time limit for settlement may be extended but must not exceed 10 working days.

Article 14. Statistic of civil status registration data

1. Civil status registration or management agencies shall make statistics of civil status registration data from the electronic civil status database, via shared electronic civil status registration and management software to serve the management.

2. An agency or organization shall send a written request to the civil status registration or management agency specified in Clauses 2, 3 and 4, Article 8 of this Decree for civil status registration statistics for state management activities.

Article 15. Management of civil status books

1. Civil status books shall be used for the following registration years until they are exhausted. When a book is used up but the year is not over, the civil status officer shall close the book according to Clause 3, Article 11 of the Government's Decree No. 123/2015/ND-CP dated November 15, 2015 detailing a number of articles of, and measures to implement, the Law on Civil Status.

2. In case an agency other than the previous civil status registration agency carries out the civil status registration leading to a change of civil status information of an individual, after the update in the electronic civil status database in accordance with this Decree, it shall be responsible for notifying the previous civil status registration agency for noting the change in the corresponding civil status number.

Chapter IV

STATE MANAGEMENT OF ELECTRONIC CIVIL STATUS DATABASE

Article 16. Responsibilities of agencies managing the electronic civil status database

1. Agencies managing the electronic civil status database shall, within the scope of their management, be responsible for:

a) Ensuring information infrastructure and related equipment for the continuous, stable and smooth operation of the electronic civil status database;

b) Implementing measures to ensure physical security, environment, social safety and order in the areas where the agencies’ offices are located, the areas where equipment and data in service of the operation of electronic civil status database are stored;

c) Periodically reviewing and proposing plans to upgrade and develop the information technology infrastructure system to serve the exploitation and use of the electronic civil status database in conformity with actual needs in each agency.

2. Apart from its responsibilities as prescribed in Clause 1 of this Article, the Ministry of Justice shall be responsible for:

a) Taking measures to ensure cyber security and safety of information systems for the electronic civil status database;

b) Taking measures to backup, maintain, repair, prepare backup equipment to ensure the continuous operation of the system of computers, network, equipment and application software in service of the electronic civil status database, the system's ability to recover, without interruption due to technical problems;

c) Promulgating and organizing the implementation of the Regulation on exploitation and use of the electronic civil status database, ensuring the effective connection and sharing of data in the electronic civil status database in accordance with law regulations.

Article 17. Management of user accounts

1. The Ministry of Justice shall manage user accounts in the whole system; grant, revoke, change accounts, assign the rights to access the shared electronic civil status registration and management system to users in the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and provincial-level Departments of Justice.

2. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs shall manage accounts, grant, revoke and change accounts of members of the diplomatic staff and members of the consular staff assigned to perform civil status work at representative missions as decentralized by the Ministry of Justice.

3. Provincial-level Departments of Justice shall manage accounts, grant, revoke and change accounts of civil status officers in district-level Justice Divisions, justice and civil status officers in People's Committees of communes, wards and townships that fully meet the criteria specified in Article 72 of the Law on Civil Status, at the request of district-level Justice Divisions.

4. The heads of agencies and units that are granted accounts shall be responsible for managing the accounts at their agencies and units.

5. Users who are granted accounts shall be responsible for keeping account information confidential in accordance with the law on information security; and must immediately contact the competent agencies managing the accounts for handling if suspecting or detecting that their account information is leaked.

Article 18. Backup, recovery, ensuring of the safety of electronic civil status database

1. Electronic civil status database must be backed up for regularly and continuously, ensuring the integrity and updating of data.

2. In case of necessity, the Ministry of Justice shall use the backup of electronic civil status database to restore data in the electronic civil status database, provide information to relevant civil status registration agencies to check, review, supplement, adjust data and ensure the consistency of data.

3. The Ministry of Justice shall be responsible for determining the security level of the information system, for the electronic civil status database, and take measures to ensure the safety of the information system in accordance with the level as prescribed by law regulations on cyberinformation security.

Article 19. State management responsibilities of the Ministry of Justice

The Ministry of Justice performing the state management of electronic civil status database has the following tasks and powers:

1. To promulgate or submit legal normative documents related to electronic civil status database; documents guiding the creation, exploitation, use, connection and sharing of electronic civil status database to the Government for issuance according to the competence.

2. To establish, manage and maintain the electronic civil status database; ensure the conditions for technical infrastructures for the smooth and stable operation of the electronic civil status database that meet the requirements specified in Article 4 of this Decree.

3. To formulate and submit to the Government for consideration and approval or to consider and approve the upgrading and development of the electronic civil status database according to its competence.

4. To guide, provide the training of administration, exploitation and use of electronic civil status database.

5. To monitor, examine, urge and supervise the updating of data on the electronic civil status database.

6. To connect and share digital data between the electronic civil status database and other national databases and databases of other ministries, sectors and localities in accordance with law regulations.

7. To issue civil status extract copies, certify civil status information under its competence; promulgate documents directing, administering and guiding the timely handling of problems related to the exploitation and use of the electronic civil status database for civil status registration nationwide.

8. To correct, or direct the correction of, errors on the electronic civil status database upon the detection of them.

Article 20. Responsibilities of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs

1. To cooperate with the Ministry of Justice in performing the state management of civil status and implement the provisions of this Decree at representative missions.

2. To ensure funding, resources and safety conditions for online civil status registration at representative missions.

3. To make statistics of civil status registration data at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and representative missions; and send them to the Ministry of Justice for synthesizing and reporting on them to the Government according to regulations.

Article 21. Responsibilities of the Ministry of Finance

1. To guide the collection, remittance, management and use of charges specified in Clause 2, Article 9 of this Decree.

2. To coordinate with the Ministry of Justice in formulating estimates, providing regular, periodic or irregular funding, ensuring funding for the establishment, updating, management, exploitation and use of the electronic civil status database from the state budget in accordance with the Law on the State Budget and relevant law regulations.

Article 22. Responsibilities of ministries, ministerial-level agencies and other central state agencies

1. The Ministry of Public Security shall coordinate with the Ministry of Justice in ensuring the cyber security, connecting and sharing data between the electronic civil status database and the national population database.

2. The Ministry of Information and Communications shall coordinate with the Ministry of Justice in ensuring the safety, connection and sharing of the electronic civil status database.

3. The Ministry of Planning and Investment shall coordinate with the Ministry of Justice in allocating appropriate capital sources for the establishment of the electronic civil status database; exploiting and using the electronic civil status database, sharing relevant data for making statistics and announcing national and sectoral statistical indicators on birth, death and marriage.

4. Ministries, ministerial-level agencies and other central state agencies shall coordinate with the Ministry of Justice in connecting, exploiting and using the electronic civil status database according to regulations; provide information, compare, check and adjust individuals’ civil status information in databases managed by the ministries or sectors in case of inconsistencies with the electronic civil status database; ensure the safety and the protection of privacy, personal secrets and family secrets in accordance with the law regulations upon the exploitation and use of the electronic civil status database.

Article 23. Responsibilities of People’s Committees at all levels

1. People’s Committees of provinces and centrally-run cities shall be responsible for directing the allocation of funding for civil status registration and management agencies to create the electronic civil status database according to regulations of this Decree, the allocation of annual funding for updating, managing, exploiting and using the electronic civil status database.

2. People’s Committees of districts, towns and provincial cities; People’s Committees of communes, wards and townships shall make directions and ensure equipment, infrastructure, funding for creating, updating, exploiting and using the electronic civil status database within the scope of their local management.

Chapter V

IMPLEMENTATION PROVISIONS

Article 24. Transitional provisions

1. Local civil status registration or management agencies shall uniformly use the shared electronic civil status registration and management software from the effective date of this Decree.

2. People’s Committees at all levels shall be responsible for implementing the digitization of civil status data from paper books, management and exploitation of such civil status data; converting and standardizing data from local electronic civil status registration softwares implemented before the effective date of this Decree and updating the electronic civil status database according to the guidance of the Ministry of Justice, for the completion before January 1, 2025.

3. The provincial-level People's Committee shall decide the exploitation and use of the electronic civil status database for online civil status registration in terms of scope, extent and time of implementation depending on the conditions of information infrastructure of localities.

4. The Ministry of Justice shall assume the prime responsibility for, and coordinate with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in, upgrading and modifying the shared electronic civil status registration and management software for synchronous implementation at the representative missions and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

5. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs shall agree with the Ministry of Justice on the scope, extent and time of implementation of the shared electronic civil status registration and management software in conformity with the actual conditions of each representative mission, for the completion before January 1, 2022; implement the digitization of civil status data from paper books, management and exploitation of such civil status data; update the electronic civil status database according to the guidance of the Ministry of Justice, for the completion before January 1, 2025.

6. Civil status books that have been opened before the effective date of this Decree shall be closed when being used up, certification of duplicates of such books and transfer of them for archive shall comply with Clauses 1 and 2, Article 12 of the Decree No. 123/2015/ND-CP.

7. After the electronic civil status database and the national population database are put into operation and uniform use in the country, agencies carrying out administrative procedures shall be responsible for connecting with those databases to determine the marital status of persons requesting the settlement of administrative procedures and must not require marital status certificates.

The Ministry of Justice shall coordinate with the Ministry of Public Security in guiding the uniform implementation of this Clause.

Article 25. Implementation provisions

1. This Decree takes effect on September 15, 2020.

2. To repeal Clause 1, Clause 2 Article 12 of the Government’s Decree No. 123/2015/ND-CP dated November 15, 2015.

3. The Minister of Justice shall, within the ambit of his assigned functions, tasks and powers, organize, guide and inspect the implementation of this Decree.

4. Ministers, heads of ministerial-level agencies, heads of other central agencies, chairpersons of provincial-level People's Committees, and relevant agencies, organizations and individuals shall be responsible for the implementation of this Decree./.