Recurrent: Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration
Resolution appealed: R CTBG 0649/2026
In exercise of the right of access to public information, the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration was requested to access the computer application program which, in accordance with the provisions of article 31.2 Royal Legislative Decree 670/1987, of 30 April, approving the consolidated text of the State Passive Classes Act, serves to calculate these pensions.
The Ministry issued a resolution in which it agreed to submit an attached document, which it called a calculation annex, and indicating that the computer program used for the calculation of the pensions concerned carries out its operations according to the polynomial formula contained in the aforementioned article 31, Royal Legislative Decree 670/1987, of 30 April. Later, at the stage of the allegations, it refers to the concurrence of the limit provided for in article 14.1.k) LTAIBG and the cause of inadmissibility of article 18.1.c) LTAIBG.
The Council partially estimates the claim, referring to the existence of a doctrine consolidated by it, on access to the source code and/or algorithms used by public administrations in the exercise of their functions; a doctrine that has been confirmed by the Judgment of 11 September 2025 of the Supreme Court (ECLI:ES:TS:2025:3826) (hereinafter, STS BOSCO), which it considers to be fully applicable.
In this regard, the Council indicates that increasingly, public administrations resort to automated decision-making systems for the effective performance of their functions or the adequate provision of public services, which has resulted in the imposition on them of the principle of “algorithmic transparency”, in order to provide citizens with the necessary information for their understanding and knowledge of the characteristics of their operation; which may require access to their source code. The decisions taken with this type of application often have very relevant consequences for people, so they are generating a growing demand from citizens for explanations regarding them, as well as the algorithms that support them, as an inexcusable condition to preserve accountability and control of the decisions of the public authorities and, ultimately, as an effective guarantee against arbitrariness or discriminatory biases in the decision-making totally or partially automated. It also takes into account that in this case what was requested was not the complete computer program but the part of it that translates the polynomial or mathematical formula referred to in article 31 of Royal Legislative Decree 670/1987, of 30 April, approving the consolidated text of the Law of Passive Classes of the State (TRLCPSE) to computer language; that is, an algorithm, which automatically throws a specific result of resolutory content by offering the calculation of the individualized liquidation and its corresponding notification to the interested party.
With regard to the concurrence of the limit provided for in Article 14.1.k) LTAIBG, the Council considers that it is not sufficiently justified by granting access to the part of the computer program that calculates the amount of the State Pensions of the Passive Class System, without prejudice to the adoption of the necessary measures, where appropriate, to guarantee the security inherent in the protection of personal data, through the delivery of the source code under conditions of confidentiality or limitation of its use.