News item | 17-02-2023 | 13:30
In the coming months, the government will be working on a new law to ensure that central government supervisors (the national inspectorates) can perform their duties more independently. This is written by Minister Bruins Slot of the Interior and Kingdom Relations to the House of Representatives in response to an initiative memorandum from Member of Parliament Omtzigt. Strengthening the independence of the state inspectorates is also part of the coalition agreement of the current government. The bill is expected to be sent to the Council of State in early 2024.
Minister Bruins Slot: “Our state inspectorates are the eyes and ears of politics, policy and implementation. It is very important that they can exercise their supervisory duties independently, so that their findings are not influenced by political considerations or pressure from the organizations they supervise. That helps us to make better laws and better policies and thus contributes to confidence in the government.”
Set up and design investigations on own initiative
The government intends to lay down in law that state inspectorates can always start and design an investigation on their own initiative without the intervention of a minister.
The bill also aims to limit the influence of the so-called ‘special instruction’. In exceptional cases, a minister can issue a ‘special instruction’, which means that the minister can instruct a state inspectorate to, for example, conduct an investigation or not to enforce in a specific case. The government wants to stipulate that a special designation cannot be used to stop or adjust an investigation by a national inspectorate. It may also be included in the bill that the minister must immediately report a special designation to the House of Representatives and the Senate.
Decide for yourself about invitations from the House of Representatives
The plan is also to include in the bill that the state inspectorates themselves can decide whether to accept an invitation from the House of Representatives to provide them with information about an investigation that the state inspectorate has conducted. Currently, a state inspectorate needs permission from a minister or state secretary.
Independent communication
In the bill in preparation, the government wants to provide that, in addition to their work program and annual report, government inspectorates can also publish their own advice, without the intervention of a ministry. They can then use their own spokespersons and have their own means of communication, such as websites and social media channels.
Further investigation
In addition to the above intentions, a number of matters will be further investigated in the coming months to see whether and how they will be given a place in the proposed bill. This concerns, for example, the appointment and appointment of the management of the State Inspectorates, financial frameworks for the State Inspectorates, and the evaluation of the functioning of the State Inspectorates themselves.
National Inspectorates and their tasks
When it comes to laws and policy plans, three tasks are of great importance: the policy must be made, it must be implemented and it must also be supervised. This is to check whether laws are being complied with and whether policy plans are not detrimental to society.
For the national government, this task is carried out by various supervisors (or: national inspectorates). Some supervise ministries, others over citizens and companies. They all have in common that they primarily serve the public interest.
A overview of the eleven National Inspectorates can be found here.