Press Release 25/11/2020

Survey on the Information Society in Administration. ESI-Administration. 2020

Almost all companies in the Basque Country carried out some form of electronic procedure with the Administration in 2020

The availability of ICT equipment and its use by staff is much higher within the Administration than in companies

93.5% of Basque companies carried out electronic procedures with the Public Administration in 2020, according to Eustat data. These procedures can either be carried out directly, with third parties (consultancies etc.) or by a combination of the two. 51.8% of companies performed some kind of procedure directly, 2.9 percentage points more than in 2019, whilst 73.9% did so through third parties, 0.5 percentage points more than one year ago.

In the case of companies with 10 or more employees, electronic processing reached 96.7% of establishments. Seeing as these companies have more resources at their disposal due to their greater size, they predominantly carry out procedures directly (84.0%), whereas the percentage of companies that carry out procedures through third parties is lower at 57.8%.

In addition to the percentages given concerning the use of ICT, most of the electronic procedures carried out were to obtain a different type of information (68.5%) and to obtain documents and forms (64.7%). This method is also widely used to declare social security contributions and various types of taxes, mainly VAT (79.4%) and Corporation Tax (61%).

Regarding the Administration with which the Basque companies carry out these electronic procedures, two notable examples are the Provincial Councils (86.6%) and the Central Administration (71.8%). These percentages are largely explained by the competencies of these bodies in relation to the main taxes. Next are the Basque Government (51.3%), followed by local bodies (27.9%) and the European Union and others (10.4%).

For companies with 10 or more employees, the gap between the Basque Government (76.4%) and the Provincial Councils (86.7%) or the Central Administration (85.9%) is considerably lower. The proportion of companies that use e-administration services with local bodies (47%) and the European Union and others (21.8%) has also increased significantly.

Almost all public administrations in the Basque Country have a website

In 2020, 98.8% of public administration establishments either had their own website or shared one with the body to which they belong. Compared to the previous year, 2019, this figure increased by 1.3 percentage points (97.5% in 2019). This proportion is even lower for establishments with 10 or more employees – 99.4%, 0.6 of a percentage point more than the previous year (98.8%).

In 2020, almost all Public Administration establishments in the Basque Country had basic ICT equipment. In addition to a website, 100% of public establishments have a computer and internet connection, and 99.8% have an email address. As for mobile phones, they are the least widespread item of ICT equipment, yet 85.6% of public establishments have them.

Compared to the business sector, the usage rates of Information & Communication Technology (ICT) are higher in public administration establishments. In the case of website availability, the difference is more than 40 percentage points in favour of the administration (54.2% in the business sector). However, use of mobile telephones is more frequent in the business sector (93.9%) than in the public administration sector (85.6%).

The proportion of public employees that use ICT equipment in 2020 is also at a very high level: 90.6% of public staff use computers, 93.2% have email and 88.2% have internet access. In the business sector, usage rates amongst staff are lower: 72.5%, 68.1% and 67.6% respectively.

It should be pointed out that these high percentages, in both equipment and use by personnel, occur regardless of the employment strata to which they belong. Therefore, the size of the Public Administration establishments has practically no influence.

In addition, almost all establishments (99.5%) implement some form of computer security measure, particularly using up-to-date software (97.9%), as well as installing secure passwords (97.4%).

With regard to the means of internet access in establishments that have an internet connection, almost all of them (99.7%) access the internet via fixed connections and 74.6% also have some kind of mobile connection. Standing out among the former are fibre optic connections (Cable, FTTH, etc.), with 89.7%, which in the space of only three years have experienced an increase of 11 percentage points (78.9% in 2017). In the case of mobile connections, broadband connection mobile telephones are the most widely used, available for 71.2% of establishments, also with a significant increase, 9.5 percentage points since 2017.

The Public Administration in the Basque Country places great importance on having an Internet presence via a website, as can be seen from the high percentage (98.8%) of establishments that have one, reaching 99.4% in establishments with 10 or more employees. In the business sector, the percentage is just 54.2% for all establishments as a whole, but much higher, 92.6%, for those with 10 or more employees.

These websites provide general information on the institution (in 100% of cases), catalogues of products or price lists (67.1%) or links to social media profiles (61.5%), amongst other options. In comparison with the business sector, the Administration attaches greater importance to posting information on job vacancies, 62.3% versus 27.5% of companies, and accessibility for persons with disabilities, for which provision is made on 47.8% of the Administration’s websites, as opposed to 21.2% of company websites.

Regarding languages that they can be accessed in, Basque and Spanish particularly stand out, available in 98.8% and 98.3% of the total, respectively, whereas 38.0% of websites can be accessed in English and 19.1% in other languages. In the business sector, the availability of websites in Basque is considerably lower, 42.4%, as are, to a lesser extent, websites in English (31.6%) or other languages (14.3%).

Free software is present in 66.5% of public establishments of the Basque Country

66.5% of public establishments have free software in 2020, such as Internet browsers, office programs, free or open operating systems (Linux...), etc. In those with 10 or more employees this percentage increases to 72.1%.

For its part, the percentage of public establishments that participate in e-commerce stood at 20.4% in December 2019.

For further information:

Euskal Estatistika-Erakundea / Basque Statistics Institute C/ Donostia-San Sebastian, 1 01010 Vitoria-Gasteiz Press Service:servicioprensa@eustat.esTel: 945 01 75 62