Inspection Reform in the Netherlands 1

Approach to Reform by Country: Cases From the Netherlands

Rob VeldersRob.velders@gmail.com

+31 6 2393 5939

6/3/2014

Inspection Reform in the Netherlands 2

Issues regarding reform of enforcement

• Mergers• Reduction of administrative burden• Basic principles• Training• ICT/tools• Regional Environmental Services• Cooperation• Impact assessment• Some observations6/3/2014

Inspection Reform in the Netherlands 3

Mergers

There are several drivers to merge inspectorates:• Too many inspection bodies

overall• Too many inspection bodies

per ministry• Reduction of burden• Effectiveness and efficiency

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Reduction of administrative burden

Aiming at the right balance between economic growth and compliance• Measuring of burden of enforcement • Usage of trust and “Inspection holidays”• Soft whenever possible, tough when

needed• Education and Training• Certification and accreditation• Cooperation6/3/2014

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Principles of good enforcement

National Government:• 2000: Professionalism, independence,

transparancy• 2005: Cooperative, Risk Based, ResoluteMarket Surveillance Authorities (2014)• Effective: Mission driven, effective, accountable, • Efficiënt: Empowering, cooperative, efficient organized• Professional: independent, transparent, adequate trained

inspectorsLocal government (almost ready):• Independence, professionalism, reliability6/3/2014

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Training

• Many inspectorates have their own training facilities and programs

• Formation of a national inspection academy

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ICT/tools

• Table of Eleven: behaviour-analysis model (webbased, available in English, German and French language: www.it11.nl)

• Tablet-apps• Inspectionview: webbased application to

consult inspection results of other inspectorates

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Regional Environmental Services

All municipalities and provinces are forced to hand over enforcement to newly established servicesGoals: - Quality improvement of

enforcement- More distance from

local politicians

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Cooperation

• Board of inspectorates (2001) • Board of Market Surveillance

Authorities (2010)• Regional Environmental Services (2013)• Conceptual framework on inspections (speaking

the same language)• Stacked supervision: trying to cooperate

between national inspectorates and local supervisors

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Some other observations

• Mergers take at least 2 years• There is a tendency to focus mergers of

inspectorates towards domains (education, healthcare, food, etc)

• Incidents are not accepted anymore:“More and tougher enforcement!”

• Growing political interference• Juridical obstacles to exchange information • Cooperation is difficult!6/3/2014