Dutch gov't taking over 4 times longer than allowed to answer requests for information

It took the Dutch Ministries an average of 188 days to respond to a request for information last year, the Open State Foundation, the Institute for Social Innovation, and the University of Amsterdam reported in an annual study into the Open Government Act (Woo). The maximum response time under the law is 42 days.

Since May 2022, citizens have been able to appeal to the Woo to request government documents. Until then, the similar Government Information (Public Access) Act (Wob) applied. Journalists and lawyers, among others, use the law to obtain information about the state of affairs at Ministries, water boards, and municipalities, among others.

The waiting time for a response from the government has only increased since 2022, according to the study. In that year, an information request took an average of 161 days.

Last year, the Ministry of Education was the fastest on average, responding within 99 days on average - still over double the statutory time. The Ministry of Justice and Security was the slowest with 299 days. According to the governments, requests take a long time because they are very difficult.

Ministries responded to more Woo requests last year than the year before, the researchers wrote. In 2023, it involved 1,752 responses. Last year, there were over 2,000. However, according to the research, these are “still relatively few information requests compared to surrounding countries.”

The government recently published its own “dashboard” with figures on the handling of information requests. It currently states that the Ministries take an average of 143 days to respond to Woo requests. The difference is that requests are sometimes temporarily suspended, the researchers write. The government does not count those days, but the researchers do.