News item | 07-12-2023 | 5:30 PM
Today, the results of the implementation test of the Open Government Act were shared with the House of Representatives.
The implementation test is a new evaluation instrument to identify bottlenecks of citizens, companies and organizations surrounding new legislation. On May 1, 2022, the Open Government Act (Woo) came into effect. This law regulates the right to information about everything the government does. The implementation test of the Woo shows that the implementation of the law is problematic on various points.
The Woo implementation test, carried out by external research agency SEO Economic Research among both users and implementers of the Woo, identifies these bottlenecks. It appears that government organizations often do not yet implement the Woo properly. According to the research, this is largely due to the limited capacity, although steps have also been taken to increase it. In addition to other activities, there is a lack of priority in the implementation of the Woo. The research also shows that civil servants feel less free to advise in their work.
In addition, the researchers indicate that the Netherlands has extensive public access legislation compared to other countries, as a result of which extensive Woo requests lead to a large implementation burden. This principle demands a lot from government organizations and sometimes leads to excesses that may not have been foreseen by the legislator. There are good examples that demonstrate the successful implementation of the WOO. These ‘best practices’ should be used more, according to the researchers.
“Strong conclusions,” said State Secretary Van Huffelen of the Interior and Kingdom Relations. “Facing the problems in both legislation and implementation is essential. Ultimately, we want a transparent government that proactively provides transparency to everyone. We will work towards this step by step in the coming years. The best practices can help with this.”
A view on the future
The next step is that the Advisory Board on Public Access and Information Management (ACOI) and the Government Commissioner for Information Management are each asked to issue advice on the outcomes and recommendations of the study. Both recommendations are expected in the first quarter of 2024. This will be followed by a government response with announced measures aimed at improving the implementation and feasibility of the Woo. The aim is to send the government response to Parliament by the end of May 2024. The date is subject to progress regarding the cabinet formation.