Facts
Attorney W. represents S. in a supplementary benefits (EL) procedure. He requested the competent Office for Supplementary Benefits to the Old Age and Survivors' Insurance/Disability Insurance (AHV/IV) of the City of Zurich to provide him with photocopies of the entire case file. The administration rejected this and offered to send the original files or to allow on-site file inspection. At the request of the legal representative, the Office issued a decision rejecting the request for the delivery of file copies.
S., through his attorney W., filed an appeal in public law matters with the Federal Supreme Court against this decision.
Considerations
The Federal Supreme Court decided that the contested decision is an interim decision, as it does not conclude the EL administrative procedure. The right to information under data protection law and the right to file inspection under procedural law are independent claims with different requirements. The file inspection is here exclusively based on the pursuit of a social insurance claim, i.e. it is of a procedural nature.
Since the manner of granting file inspection (sending the original files instead…