Electronic forms; empowerment to issue statutory instruments

The Federal Government may introduce electronic forms by statutory instrument with the consent of the Bundesrat. The statutory instrument may provide that the information contained in the forms is to be transmitted, completely or partly, in a structured machine-readable form. The forms are made available on the Internet for use on a communication platform to be determined in the statutory instrument. The statutory instrument may provide that the form user may be identified by using the electronic proof of identity in accordance with section 18 of the Act on Identity Cards (Personalausweisgesetz), with section 12 of the Electronic Identity Card Act (eID-Karte-Gesetz), or with section 78 (5) of the Residence Act (Aufenthaltsgesetz), in derogation from section 32a (3) of the Code of Criminal Procedure. The Federal Government may transfer the power to the competent Federal or Land ministries by means of a statutory instrument.