← Back to catalogue
Published

Public Service / Government Service

vr.wm-pol-018 · wm-pol-018-public-service-government-service

Describe one public service offering, its responsible authority, eligibility and delivery design, with links to separately mastered transactions.

World Models Society, people and institutions SOC.POL.SRV
Bundle → Layer → Finding → QuestionsClassifiersWhat it isWhy it existsDistinguishing featuresWhat robots and AI may and may not doMoral aspectsOwnersLinks to other meta-modelsIdentity and identifiersDirect propertiesRecognitionCapabilities and actionsHazards and failure modesStandards and interfacesContext of useSources

Bundle → Layer → Finding → Questions Filled

3 bundles · 4 layers · 5 findings · 11 questions

Service definition What the service is and who provides it.

Service description

The service, its legal basis, provider and channels.

Mandate and provider

The legal basis and the authority that provides the service.

  1. Which authority provides the service, and under which legal basis?
  2. Which channels, such as online, in person or by post, are available?

Requirements and cost

Documents, fees and time limits that apply.

  1. Which documents and evidence must an applicant provide?
  2. What fee applies, and what is the legal time limit for a decision?
Entitlement and application Who may receive it and how they ask.

Eligibility

The conditions a person must meet.

Eligibility rules

The conditions and how they are checked.

  1. Which conditions must the applicant meet, and how is each checked?
  2. Are some people entitled automatically, without applying?

Application

A request made by or for a person.

Application record

The application with its date, applicant and status.

  1. When was the application submitted, and by whom or on whose behalf?
  2. What is its current status, and what is still missing?
Delivery and redress The outcome and how to contest it.

Decision and delivery

The decision, the delivered output and appeal routes.

Outcome

The decision taken and what was delivered.

  1. What was decided, by whom and on what grounds?
  2. Was the output, such as a document or payment, delivered and when?
  3. Which appeal or complaint route was offered to the applicant?

Classifiers Filled

Family
World Models
Category
Society, people and institutions
Entry kind
entity
Navigation path
NAV.SOC.POL.SRV
Domain
SOC.POL.SRV
Industry
Cross-industry
Tags
publicservicegovernmentsoc.pol.srv

What it is Filled

A public or government service is a service that a public authority provides to people or businesses under a legal mandate, such as issuing a document, paying a benefit or granting a permit. It is described through its entitlement rules, the application a person makes and the delivery of the outcome. The authority itself, the legal norm behind the service and a single case file are separate subjects.

In scope

  • Service identity, purpose, audience, jurisdiction, competent authority and description lifecycle
  • Versioned eligibility, evidence requirements, costs, time assertions, channels and output definitions
  • Delivery dependencies, redress information, performance observations, provenance and controlled service metadata

Out of scope

  • Applicant identity masters, individual eligibility decisions, application payloads, case files and delivered benefit or permit records
  • Legislation authoring, public organization master data, executable adjudication, payment or enforcement
  • Universal service taxonomy, universal legal duties, operational security instructions or certification of legal or accessibility compliance

Why it exists Filled

Describe one public service offering, its responsible authority, eligibility and delivery design, with links to separately mastered transactions.

Distinguishing features Filled

  • Provided by a public authority under a legal mandate, with entitlement rules rather than a commercial offer.
  • Its lifecycle runs from entitlement and application to decision, delivery and redress.
  • Distinct from service in general, its parent, because public law duties such as equal treatment and appeal apply.
  • Distinct from the authority that provides it and from the permit or benefit record it produces.

What robots and AI may and may not do Filled

Must not

  • Submit an application or sign a declaration on a person's behalf without their authorization.
  • Decide eligibility in a way that cannot be explained or appealed.
  • Deny or delay a service on grounds outside the law.
  • Share applicant data with other agencies beyond what law allows.
  • Charge fees not set by the authority or pose as an official channel.

Only with a human decision

  • Taking a decision that refuses or withdraws an entitlement.
  • Handling an appeal or complaint.
  • Making exceptions to eligibility rules.

May

  • Explain services, eligibility rules, required documents and fees from official sources.
  • Help a person prepare and check an application before they submit it.
  • Track the status of an application for the applicant.
  • Remind applicants of deadlines and missing documents.

Moral aspects Filled

  • Public services are rights of people, and errors can leave them without income, housing or documents.
  • Automated eligibility decisions must be explainable and contestable.
  • Digital-only channels can exclude people without access, skills or documents.

Who is affected

  • Applicants and beneficiaries
  • People acting for applicants, such as carers
  • Public servants
  • Taxpayers funding the service

Owners Filled

Steward

The public authority mandated to provide the service owns its description, applications and decisions.

Roles

Service steward
Maintain description identity, review status and source continuity
Competent authority reviewer
Verify mandate and approve service-level rule assertions within delegation
Delivery and accessibility reviewer
Assess channel routes, inclusion evidence and declared availability
Records and privacy officer
Authorize restricted scopes, release, retention and disposal
Catalogue editor
Prepare evidence-backed revisions without determining individual rights

Master systems

  • National public service catalogues
  • Case management systems of public authorities

Links to other meta-models Filled

aligned

  • WM-ACT-004 - Candidate generic-service parent alignment only; verify version and compatibility before inheritance.
  • CPSV-AP 3.2.0 - Conceptual public-service vocabulary mapping; conformance and data-shape bindings remain unimplemented.

references

  • WM-POL-017 - Optional separately mastered administrative case; pin service revision without importing case payloads.
  • WM-REC-009 - Optional application record for request-based routes; not required for every service.
  • WM-REC-010 - Optional decision record where a service route produces a formal determination.
  • Authoritative public organization and legal resource masters - Competent authority and mandate evidence must be supplied for a verified operational profile; unresolved at research stage.

neighbor

  • WM-ACT-004 Service - Registry parent is a candidate alignment to generic service. This offering adds authority and public mandate context; inheritance is not asserted without a pinned compatible specification.
  • WM-POL-017 Administrative Procedure / Case - A service definition can link many separately controlled cases or none. Case status, participant standing and legal decisions remain case-owned.
  • WM-REC-009 Application / Request Record and WM-REC-010 Decision / Approval Record - Optional external references; service-level routes do not contain individual applications or decisions. Proactive or information-only profiles need not require an application or decision.
  • Public authority, legal resource and delivery provider - Competence, legal mandate, cataloguing stewardship and operational participation are separate assertions. Outsourcing delivery does not transfer the competent authority role by implication.

parent

  • WM-ACT-004

What else AI and robots need to interact with it Filled

Identity and identifiers required Filled

  • A service is identified by its entry in a national public service catalogue.
  • An application is identified by the case or reference number issued by the authority.
  • Applicants are identified through national identity or electronic identification schemes.

Direct properties not applicable Not applicable

Not applicable

A public service is an institutional offering and process, not a physical object with measurable physical properties.

Recognition optional Filled

  • An offering by a public authority with a legal basis, eligibility rules and an application or delivery route.
  • Often confused with commercial services offered on behalf of the authority or with the authority itself.

Capabilities and actions required Filled

  • Applications can be submitted, completed, decided, appealed and closed.
  • Some services are delivered proactively when the authority already holds the data.

Hazards and failure modes required Filled

  • Wrongful refusal or withdrawal of a benefit or document.
  • Fraudulent sites posing as the official service.
  • Exclusion of people who cannot use the offered channels.

Standards and interfaces required Filled

  • Core Public Service Vocabulary Application Profile (CPSV-AP) for service descriptions.
  • Single Digital Gateway rules for cross-border access to services in the European Union.
  • eIDAS electronic identification for applicants.

Context of use required Filled

  • Provided by national, regional and local authorities online, in offices and by post.
  • Governed by administrative law, including rights to reasons and appeal.

Sources Filled

  1. Core Public Service Vocabulary Application Profile - European Commission SEMIC
  2. Service Standard - Government Digital Service
  3. Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.2 - World Wide Web Consortium
  4. PROV-O: The PROV Ontology - World Wide Web Consortium
  5. General Data Protection Regulation - European Union
  6. Date and Time on the Internet: Timestamps - Internet Engineering Task Force
  7. The European Code of Good Administrative Behaviour - European Ombudsman
  8. Single Digital Gateway Regulation - European Union
  9. Core Public Service Vocabulary Application Profile (CPSV-AP), European Commission SEMIC
  10. Regulation (EU) 2018/1724 establishing a single digital gateway, European Union
  11. OECD Recommendation on Digital Government Strategies, OECD

Open questions

  • Verify source status, current legal consolidations and applicability for every adopting jurisdiction and service sector.
  • Implement and assess nested schemas and loss-aware mappings with fixtures covering shared authority, proactive provision, offline access, conditional fees, stale channels, restricted metrics and retirement.
  • Restore independent external review before promotion toward canonical or publishable-draft assurance.
  • Independent external review is waived; local self-audit is not independent review
  • Live source status, current legal consolidation, translation, licensing and jurisdictional applicability remain unverified
  • Nested field schemas, external master bindings, runnable entitlement rules and conformance fixtures are not implemented
  • Sector-specific and non-European profiles, legal remedies, automated decisions and regulated-service exceptions need qualified review
  • CPSV-AP and provenance mappings and complete-process accessibility tests remain proposed

Machine files

Card as JSON Specification AGENTS.md Source Card backlog vercy.card/1

Provenance

world-models research · reviewable-draft

Built from: models/wm-pol-018-public-service-government-service/spec.yaml, ver-cy/world-models/card-supplements/wm-pol-018-public-service-government-service.json