Glossary

Quality

It is the degree of satisfaction that the citizen perceives. It is the comparison that the citizen makes between his perception and his expectations.

Channels

Structures or means of dissemination of the contents and services; including the face-to-face, telephone and electronic channel, as well as others that exist today or may exist in the future (mobile devices, DTT, etc.).

Ability to act

It is the legal quality of the person who determines the effectiveness of the acts performed by him. Before the Public Administrations, minors have the capacity to act, in addition to persons having such capacity according to civil regulations, in defence of their interests, unless they have been expressly incapacitated.

Expiration

Loss or extinction of a right or an action for the sole lapse of a certain period of time, previously established.

Letters of Service

Written documents that constitute an instrument through which administrative bodies inform citizens about the services they have entrusted and about the commitments of quality in their provision, as well as the rights of the same in relation to the services.

Electronic certificate

According to article 6 of Law 59/2003, of 19 December, on Electronic Signature, “Document electronically signed by a certification service provider that links signature verification data to a signatory and confirms his identity”.

Recognised electronic certificate

According to article 11 of Law 59/2003, of 19 December, on Electronic Signatures: ‘Recognised certificates are electronic certificates issued by a certification service provider who fulfils the requirements laid down in this Law as regards the verification of the identity and other circumstances of applicants and the reliability and guarantees of the certification services they provide’.

Citizen

Any natural persons, legal persons and entities without personality that relate to, or are likely to relate to, the Public Administrations.

Comade-up

Crime committed by an official who receives gifts or promises to do something or refrain from doing it

Competition

Attribution, authority, incumbency. Ability to know an authority on matter or subject.

Viable commitment

In a conflict it is the way to reach a solution that serves both parties, on occasions when the rights of one party are as legitimate as those of the other.

Communication

It is the process by which information is transmitted from one person to another.

Punishable conduct

Act or fact that carries with it a penalty as a legal consequence.

Validation of cancellable acts

It is the Administration’s power to make an act valid, correcting any defects it may have.

Curatela

It is an institution that, like guardianship, aims to supplement people’s ability to act.

Declaration of Harmfulness

It is an action of the Administration that consists of declaring an act harmful (harmful) to the general interests and being able to challenge it later in the courts. It only takes place ex officio and against administrative acts favourable to the interested parties that may be annulled.

Official declaration of invalidity of acts or provisions

The Administration may declare, ex officio and at any time, the nullity of acts and administrative provisions affected by any of the causes of nullity, on its own initiative or at the request of the interested party. It is necessary that these acts have put an end to the administrative procedure or that no appeal has been lodged against them. Otherwise, it is necessary to wait for the resolution of such an appeal.

Degradation of information

It is the process of gradual loss in the content of the message or initial information, throughout the communication process, from the moment it starts in the sender until it reaches the receiver.

Denunciation

Act by which the authority is informed, in writing or orally, of an act contrary to the law, in order for it to proceed to its investigation and punishment.

Decentralization

Principle of action of the Administration. It is the transfer of competences to other bodies hierarchically independent of the one that had the ownership. For example, between the State and the Autonomous Communities.

Deconcentration

Principle of action of the Administration. Es la cesión de competencias a órganos dependientes jerárquicamente del que realiza la transmisión. For example, between agencies of the same ministry.

Refusal

Act by which the competent body does not accede to the request of the interested party in his request.

Withdrawal

Voluntary abandonment of a certain conduct or of a certain right.

Working days

Working days are those that are taken into account to carry out actions against the Administration and are computed in the deadlines of the administrative procedure. Working days, including Saturdays, are skillful.

Natural days

It’s every day of the week. When deadlines are indicated by calendar days, this circumstance will be expressly stated in the notification.

E-mail address

Identifier of an electronic equipment or system from which information or services are provided in a communications network.

Electronic document

Information of any nature in electronic form, archived on an electronic medium according to a certain format and susceptible of identification and differentiated treatment.

Rotroactive effect

It occurs when an administrative act takes effect over the past and begins its validity on a date prior to that which is dictated.

Effectiveness

Principle of action of the Administration. It is the ability to achieve the goal you expect or want after performing an action

Efficiency

Principle of action of the Administration n.Es the ability to achieve a previously fixed objective in the shortest possible time and with the minimum possible use of resources, which means an optimization.

Forced execution

It is the obligatory fulfillment of what is ordered by the Administration, using a series of measures to that effect and which are found in the art. 95 to 100 of Law 30/92.

Empathy

It is the ability to place yourself in someone else’s place and understand their point of view, even if you do not agree with it.

Common spaces or single windows

Modes or channels (integrated offices, telephone attention, Internet pages and others) to which citizens can go to access the information, procedures and public services determined by agreement between several Administrations.

• it is public and is available free of charge or at a cost that does not cause difficulty in accessing it,
• Its use and application is not conditional on the payment of an intellectual or industrial property right.

Open standard

One who meets the following conditions:

Administrative file

A set of administrative actions that are happening in the same matter since the beginning of the procedure.

Electronic signature

According to article 3 of Law 59/2003, of 19 December, on Electronic Signatures, “set of data in electronic form, consigned with others or associated with them, which can be used as a means of identification of the signer”.

Advanced electronic signature

According to article 3 of Law 59/2003, of 19 December, on Electronic Signature, “electronic signature that allows the signer to be identified and any subsequent changes to the signed data to be detected, which is linked to the signer in a unique way and to the data to which it refers and which has been created by means that the signer can keep under his exclusive control”.

Recognized electronic signature

According to article 3 of Law 59/2003, of 19 December, on Electronic Signature, “advanced electronic signature based on a recognized certificate and generated by a secure signature creation device”.

Force majeure

Force majeure is conceived as an event of external origin, unpredictable or in any case inevitable, such as floods, earthquakes, fires...

Degree of affinity

It is the kinship that is established through marriage with the spouse and their relatives.

Degree of consanguinity

It is the kinship that one has with the relatives of blood, which come from the same root or trunk.

Incoation

It is the first step in an administrative process. In this case, it consists of giving an order of entry to the administrative files that serves for their resolution.

Administrative information

It is an appropriate channel through which citizens can access the knowledge of their rights and obligations and the use of public goods and services.

General information

It is the administrative information relating to the identification, purposes, competence, structure, operation, location of bodies and administrative units and the legal or technical requirements of projects, actions or applications. It is information that does not refer to a specific administrative act or resolution.

Particular information

It concerns the status or content of the proceedings in progress and the identification of the authorities and personnel of the General Administration of the State. It is information about procedures or dossiers that directly affect citizens. It can only be provided to the interested party or his/her legal representative.

Public information

Procedure to publish the existence and object of a file, granting a deadline for any natural or legal person to make claims or observations.

Report

Declaration of judgement of an administrative body, person or public or private entity on matters of fact or law that are the subject of an administrative procedure.

Optional report

It is the one that is requested on a voluntary basis. The general rule is that the reports are optional and not binding.

Non-binding report

It is the report whose recommendations are not obligatory to follow in a file.

Mandatory report

It is the one that is required on a mandatory basis. They are ordered in the regulations that regulate the procedure.

Binding report

It is the report whose recommendations should be followed in the resolution of the file.

Initiative

Action that can start with officials or the public and that aims to achieve the improvement of the structure, operation and personnel of administrative services.

Immigrant

A natural person from one country who comes to another to settle in it.

Interested

Holder of the right or of a legitimate interest that he/she intends to assert before the Public Administration

Interest

Inclination of the mood towards something.

• Personal interest: derived from an individual situation.
• Direct interest: current and concrete
• Legitimate interest: according to reason and justice, and therefore deserving of recognition, respect and protection.

Interoperability

Capacity of information systems, and therefore of the procedures they support, to share data and enable the exchange of information and knowledge between them.

Fraudulent machination

Carry out procedures, to prepare actions contrary to the law, crimes, deceptions, etc.

Electronic medium

Mechanism, installation, equipment or system that allows to produce, store or transmit documents, data and information; including any open or restricted communication networks such as the Internet, fixed and mobile telephony or others. (Law 11/2007).

Motivation

The reasons of fact and law that underlie the decision.

Multiadministration

Characteristic of the 060 Network by which it integrates the services of the three Spanish Public Administrations.

Multichannel

Characteristic of Network 060 by which the citizen can access public services through different means, in person, by telephone, through the Internet, etc.

Notification

It is the administrative document in which the resolution is recorded and which is communicated to the interested party.

Nullity of full law

It is the loss of the effects of an administrative act for any of the reasons included in art. 47 of Law 39/2015.

Personation

It is the act by which the holder of a right or a legitimate interest intends to assert it before the Public Administration.

Parental authority

Set of rights that the law confers on parents over the persons and property of their unemancipated children, as well as the set of duties that parents must also fulfill with respect to their children.

Deadlines

Time space in which an activity must be performed.

Personalise

Appearance of the interested party who originates his/her legal presence as part of the file.

Discretionary power

It is the nature of the functions that the Administration freely performs and that are not subject to any regulations.

Prescription

Termination of the action for the lapse of a period of time established by law without having exercised.

Service activity provider

Any natural or legal person who offers or provides a service activity.

Prevarication

An offence committed by public officials who knowingly issue or propose manifestly unjust resolutions or through inexcusable ignorance or negligence.

Test

Set of actions aimed at clarifying and accrediting in the file the facts that are relevant to the resolution.

Publication

It is the way to notify a resolution to an indeterminate group of people, to a plurality of stakeholders in the procedure or when it comes to acts that are part of selective processes and competitive competition. It is done in bulletin boards, official bulletins or daily newspapers. - It is also the act by which the rules can be applied, after their approval.

Electronic access point

Set of web pages grouped in an Internet domain whose objective is to offer the user, in an easy and integrated way, access to a series of resources and services aimed at solving specific needs of a group of people or access to information and services of a public institution.

Feedback

Process whereby when performing an action, in order to achieve a certain objective, the previous actions are fed back so that the successive actions will bear in mind the result of those past actions.

Receptivity

It is the responsiveness of the Public Administration adopting the customer’s point of view.

Administrative appeal

Challenge of an agreement or resolution of the Administration by those who consider themselves injured so that, due to the reasons alleged, the resolution is reformed, either by the body that issued it or by the superior.

Recusation

Request by an interested party not to act in the proceedings if one of the reasons for abstention that endangers his impartiality occurs.

Renunciation

Abandonment of a right by its holder provided that it is not contrary to the interest or public order or to the detriment of a third party.

Representation

Condition of acting on behalf of another person.

Administrative resolution

Administrative act that terminates a procedure whereby the competent body decides all the issues raised in it.

Revoke

Act by which another previous one is left without effect.

RSS

They are the abbreviation of Really Simple Syndication, an XML format for syndicating or sharing content on the web. It is used to disseminate frequently updated information to users who have subscribed to the content source.

Sealing of time

Accreditation by a trusted third party of the date and time of carrying out any operation or transaction by electronic means.

Final court ruling

Final judicial resolution against which no appeal is possible.

Administrative silence

Presumption of resolution for the lapse of a period without the administration having expressly resolved a request , claim or remedy deducted before it.

Positive silence: if the estimate of the request is presumed

Negative silence: if the request is presumed to be denied for the purpose of making the corresponding appeal.

Electronic signature system

Set of elements involved in the creation of an electronic signature. In the case of the electronic signature based on the electronic certificate, the system consists of at least the electronic certificate, the support, the reader, the signature application used and the interpretation and verification system used by the recipient of the signed document.

Suggestion

It is any proposal that aims to promote the improvement of quality through the provision of ideas or initiatives to improve the functioning of public services and administrative management.

Assertive techniques

They are used to prevent manipulation in interpersonal relationships.

Conventional termination

Actions that put an end to a procedure through the conclusion of agreements, covenants, agreements or contracts between the Public Administrations and people of both public and private law.

Emergency processing

It is when the procedural deadlines are halved, for reasons of public interest, to achieve a goal as soon as possible. It can be done ex officio or at the request of the interested party.

Procedure for hearing through administrative channels

It is the act of presentation to the interested parties of the procedures in which they are interested so that they can argue and present the documents and justifications that they deem pertinent. It is done before the motion for a resolution is drafted.

Tutela

A means of suppressing the incapacity to act of a person not subject to parental authority.

Administrative route

Action before the administrative bodies, prior to the legal action

Violence

Physical or moral force that is exerted on a person to achieve a declaration of will.

Gender-based violence

It is the one that, as a manifestation of discrimination, inequality and power relations between men and women, is exercised by those who are or have been their spouses or those who are or have been linked to them by similar relations of affectivity, even without cohabitation.