Public authority number celebrates its tenth anniversary
115 offers citizen service by telephone
On Tuesday, 1 February, the public authority number 115 will have been in operation for ten years. The telephone number was activated in Chemnitz on 1 February 2012. Since then, almost 600,000 calls have reached the city's service centre via the authority number.
As the first point of contact for all official questions, citizens can get a quick and reliable answer via the public authority number 115. Whether it's the registration of a new vehicle, a certificate of good conduct, a lost key or questions about school enrolment: the staff at the service centre take care of finding out which authority or administrative level is responsible. In this way, 115 supplements the citizen service provided by the municipal offices by telephone.
Currently, the most frequent request to the 115 in Chemnitz is for an appointment at the driving licence office to exchange the old paper driving licence. Appointments and changes to appointments have increased as a result of the coronavirus pandemic anyway, as face-to-face appointments at the city's offices are only possible by appointment.
The 115 scheme operates on a voluntary basis as a joint project between the federal, state and local authorities. It is financed by the federal and state governments. The local authorities provide the decentralised infrastructure on site. Nationwide, more than 550 local authorities, 14 federal states and the entire federal administration are currently participating in 115.
The public authority number can be reached nationwide and also from abroad using the country code. All participants provide information in a shared knowledge database. Not every municipality has its own municipal service centre; the task can also be handed over to municipal cooperation partners. In Saxony, the cities of Leipzig and Chemnitz operate their own municipal service centres. This makes 115 a good example of comprehensive and inter-municipal cooperation.
The service times are standardised nationwide: Monday to Friday from 8 am to 6 pm. The enquiry is dealt with at the first point of contact. If this is not possible, the staff will forward it for processing.