New Dutch Open Government Act: frequently deleting data history now out of the question
After more than ten years, the time has come. The new Dutch Open Government Act (Wet Openbaar Overheid, Woo) will take effect on 1 May 2022. The Woo replaces the Government Information (Public Access) Act (Wob). The aim of the Act is to get administrative bodies of the government in the Netherlands to actively disclose more information to the public. This will require better ‘housekeeping’ of digital information. But will civil servants now have to constantly worry about perhaps at some point having to disclose any comments they ever made? Will the Advisory Board Woo and the government commissioner get in each other’s way? Is the Woo not just old wine in new bottles?
Annemarie Drahmann, Associate Professor at the Department of Constitutional and Administrative Law, answers these and other questions in an article (in Dutch) in a special edition of iBestuur magazine.