Aitor Cubo Contreras: "Spain is at the forefront of digital transformation"

The General Council of the Official Associations of Social Graduates of Spain, in Madrid, hosted this Wednesday the conference of Aitor Cubo Contreras, former Government specialist in digital transformation of the Citizen Services Innovation Division of the Inter-American Development Bank, who is now the Director General of Digital Transformation of the Administration of Justice. 

The meeting, which was also attended by the President of the General Council of Official Associations of Social Graduates, Ricardo Gabaldón, and which was moderated by the journalist and director of the magazine Atalayar, Javier Fernández Arribas, allowed Aitor Cubo to address and explain the importance of the upcoming law on digital transformation, as well as its impact on the legal and judicial sectors. 

Spain is "at the forefront of digital transformation" in the Public Justice Service, the Director General of Digital Transformation emphasised from the start of his presentation. For just under an hour, Aitor Cubo gave a detailed overview of the initiatives and projects that the Justice Administration has underway or plans to promote in the coming months with a view to digitising part of the judicial tasks.

The digital transition plan - included in the draft bill on the Digital Efficiency of the Public Justice Service and under the responsibility of the Directorate General for the Public Justice Service - represents the Administration's largest budget project in the country. 410 million euros have already been established for the next General State Budget, 2022/2023, and are financed, to a large extent, thanks to European funds. 

Throughout his presentation, Aitor Cubo reiterated that all the projects "have only been possible thanks to the model of co-governance" between the Judicial Power Council, the Public Prosecutor's Office, and each and every one of the Autonomous Communities, which have worked to draw up the Digital Efficiency Law and build homogeneous and interoperable digital services throughout Spain to make it possible. 

Among the initiatives highlighted by the Director of Digital Transformation, he highlighted the programmed agenda of appointments, the Access to the Electronic Judicial File, the Single Judicial Bulletin Board or the Virtual Digital Interaction Desk (EVID) that allows secure identification in remote judicial contacts, both for citizens, professionals or administrations. "This service is not available in any other administration in Spain or in any other country in the world," said Cubo. 

Cybersecurity, on the other hand, is one of the central pillars, not only of the Law on Digital Efficiency of the Justice Service itself, but also of each and every one of these initiatives. "Getting a password on the deep web does not cost more than 30 cents", exemplified Aitor Cubo. That is why "we have to be aware of the importance of cybersecurity. Especially in public administrations". In this sense, the accumulation of personal data and the fear of the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) - such as robotisation processes - seem to be two of the issues that arouse most reluctance among the population, said Cubo. 

"We are not talking about implanting robot judges", but about starting to manage large amounts of information that until now has not been organised and systematised using digital processes. Algorithms and programmes. According to the director general of Digital Transformation, using AI to "textualise recordings, locate false documents", etc. would lead to an "increase in the productivity and efficiency of professionals and greater speed in the justice system".  

Improvements transferred to citizens as a whole, not only to the judicial sector. This was the last of the central issues that Aitor Cubo tried to highlight during his conference at the General Council of the Official Associations of Social Graduates of Spain. In order to take advantage of the advances in terms of digital transition that would result from these projects, the director general of the body emphasised the training initiative to educate trainers in the different autonomous communities, and that these, in turn, would have an impact on society as a whole. 

The digital transformation projects also aim to "eliminate gaps, whether territorial, gender, age or social class", said Cubo. In this sense, they will not only result in a greater availability of purely technological services, but also in the improvement of the physical presence of judicial services in small municipalities.