News item | 01-05-2022 | 12:00
As of today, the Open Government Act (Woo) has officially come into effect. The Woo is the successor to the Government Information (Public Access) Act (Wob) and regulates the right of citizens to information from the government. This gives everyone more insight into the actions of the government. In the coming years, the cabinet will invest more than 500 million in the implementation of the law, in addition to ongoing improvement plans for the government’s information management.
Passive and active information provision
An important difference with the Wob is that in addition to providing information on request (passive) the Woo also obliges government organizations to make information public in phases (active). Partly because of this, the Woo is an important step towards an open government. The basic principle here is that everyone has the right to access public information and that all government information is, in principle, public. This is only deviated from in exceptional cases.
In addition to this active provision of information, matters concerning information requests are also changing. Wob requests are now called Woo requests. The term for processing a Woo request remains four weeks, but can be extended by a maximum of two weeks in the case of a large or complex request (instead of four weeks under the Wob). In addition, a Woo request can be submitted to more public organizations. This applies, for example, to the Senate and House of Representatives, the Council for the Judiciary, the Council of State and the National Ombudsman. In addition, all government organizations designate a Woo contact person. This helps to answer questions about the availability of public information by citizens and journalists.
Platform and Advisory Board
De Woo obliges all administrative bodies to actively disclose certain information. The Woo contains various categories of information – for example laws, covenants and research reports – that must be actively disclosed. The active disclosure of all these categories of information is a major operation and will therefore be implemented step by step. Administrative bodies must ensure that this information can be found and searched for everyone in one digital place. This is open.overheid.nl. Because more than a thousand organizations have to connect to the platform, this must meet high (technical) requirements. A phased approach has therefore been chosen for the development of this platform, in which more and more information from the government will be available. Even now, everyone can go to the websites of the governing bodies for government information. And on open.overheid.nl, where more than 200,000 documents can currently be found, such as decision memorandums and the agenda and lists of decisions of the Council of Ministers.
With the Woo, a new, independent organization is also being set up, the Advisory Board on Openness and Information Management. This advisory board will provide solicited and unsolicited advice on the implementation of the rules on the disclosure of public information. In addition, journalists, scientists and other professionals can file a complaint if they are not satisfied with the way in which a governing body makes public information public. The council will then mediate in order to find a solution. Government organizations must cooperate in this. The complaints desk of the Advisory Board is expected to be open on 1 September.
With the Woo and the proposed measures, all Dutch government organizations are working together, step by step, towards an open government. More information about the Woo? Look at: https://www.rijksoverheid.nl/onderwerpen/wet-open-overheid-woo