New Bill in Poland: Email Addresses to Be Requested from Witnesses

The Council of Ministers of Poland will discuss an important bill at its next meeting planned for 7 July, which envisages changes in the Criminal Procedure Code and the law regarding electronic notifications. The main purpose of this bill is to make the current legislation compatible with the Electronic Notifications Law, which entered into force on 18 November 2020. The regulation in question represents an important step taken in the name of digitalization of services offered by the state. With these new regulations, the government aims to make judicial processes operate much faster, more transparently, and effectively. These radical changes in the law stand out as a critical part of the ongoing administrative and legal modernization efforts in Poland.

Ensuring a full transition to the electronic notification system aims to significantly reduce the workload of judicial organs and minimize the negative impacts on the environment by preventing paper waste. One of the most striking innovations that the new law will bring is that prosecutors will request basic contact information from witnesses during official interrogation processes. From now on, a witness who is a Polish citizen will have to provide not only their identity information but also their PESEL number (national identity/registration number) when giving a statement. In addition, prosecutors will record the mobile phone numbers and individual email addresses of witnesses in order to expedite official procedures. Authorities argue that collecting this communication data is inevitable for the smooth delivery of court invitations and official correspondence.

This step by the Polish government is also highly consistent with the broad trend across the European Union towards the digitalization of state affairs and the modernization of communication between citizens and institutions. Since notifications made via traditional mail can sometimes cause serious disruptions due to address changes or delays, electronic systems are seen as a more reliable alternative. This digital transformation process in the judicial system promises to significantly reduce the daily operational costs of courts in the long run. However, with the new regulation starting to be implemented, the issue of personal data protection and privacy is closely monitored by legal circles. Making relatively personal and digital communication channels like email mandatory for official judicial processes has also created a subject of debate among some cybersecurity experts.

The fact that the bill will be discussed at the Council of Ministers meeting in July is of great importance in terms of showing how much the Polish government prioritizes these structural reforms. If our bill is approved and passes the parliament, prosecutors and other law enforcement forces in Poland will have to immediately update their personal data collection and processing procedures according to the new norms. Following the establishment of the legal infrastructure, the equal distribution of the technical infrastructure of this comprehensive electronic system to all judicial units will emerge as another large-scale task. Authorities regarding the matter state that they are working intensively to ensure that the system's infrastructure is designed in a user-friendly way so that citizens and public employees can easily adapt. In this respect, these steps taken to fully implement the legal framework that has existed since 2020 in practice are expected to deeply affect the course of judicial reform in the country.

To summarize, these detailed changes that Poland wants to make in its Criminal Procedure Code aim to elevate the communication established by state institutions with citizens to a level compliant with 21st-century standards. Requesting data such as email addresses, phone numbers, and national identity numbers from witnesses as a standard procedure is a clear indication that legal processes are now conducted not only with physical evidence but also with digital footprints. In the coming months, it is curiously awaited by the public how this new law will be implemented and whether it will truly provide the expected efficiency in the Polish judicial system. Today, as technology becomes increasingly integrated into state administration and law enforcement processes, this step taken by Poland could also serve as an inspiring model for other countries. Ultimately, this innovative approach increases the agility of the judicial system while laying the foundations of a more modern legal architecture that also facilitates citizens' access to the system.