Thanks to digitalisation, from the viewpoint of citizens and entrepreneurs, we can make our services more user-friendly, more personal and more proactive. For example: for the registration of a marriage, a birth, a business start-up or any other life event. In many of these situations, we often have to deal with a variety of service providers crossing the boundary between public and private life.
We in government wish to provide these services as a package whenever they are called for. We will focus our attention on the way these services are perceived by the individual citizen or entrepreneur. We will therefore be working to ensure that any services provided in cooperation with different government organisations are offered in a uniform, recognisable style. We call this ‘integrated service provision’.
To be able to match our services to individual needs, we are working to establish a central point where citizens and entrepreneurs can take control of their interactions with government, even if you are a Dutch national living abroad.
To make this centralisation possible, government organisations will have to exchange more data. Those organisations will therefore be collaborating more closely and ensuring that their systems and architectures are equipped for this task (for example, the Common Ground initiative currently being implemented within municipalities). Which government organisation they are dealing with will then become less important for individual citizens; what is far more important is the quality of the help they receive.
As government organisations exchange increasing amounts of data, they must take full account of information security, privacy and other rights. A sound legal basis is needed for the exchange of personal data. In addition to existing laws, we are working to establish a new legal basis for the exchange of data among cooperating government bodies. After all, citizens must be able to trust these organisations.
Actions
Focus on life events
- We have determined three criteria for deciding which life events to deal with first: does a particular life event occur regularly? Are multiple implementing organisations involved? And is there a clear demand from society? Before the summer of 2019, we will have defined a series of checklists for life events that satisfy these criteria – for example: ‘I am in debt’, ‘I am moving house’, ‘I want to rent a home’, ‘I want to buy a home’, ‘I require long-term care’, ‘I am new to Holland’, ‘I am taking on a foster child’, ‘I am adopting a child’. For companies, the key life events are: ‘I want sustainable energy’ and ‘I am involved in a government tender procedure’. All of these events require information exchange in the chains and networks.
- Within the current Cabinet period, alongside the Ministry of General Affairs, the Chamber of Commerce and all affected government organisations, we will be working to harmonise service provision with regard to life events. We will work according to the ‘customer journey’ method.
Modernising government gateways
- We intend to improve MijnOverheid in such a way that citizens and entrepreneurs are able to access their personal data, make corrections (or have them made) and (re)use that data as required. In the future, as a citizen or entrepreneur, via MijnOverheid, you will be able to organise digital identification tools or authorisations, you will receive notifications from government, you will determine which communication channels and apps you wish to use, and you will be able to respond to notifications. To make this possible, there will have to be greater cooperation among Rijksoverheid.nl, Overheid.nl, Entrepreneursplein.nl, MijnOverheid and MijnOverheid voor Ondernemers.
- We will be focusing on the quality of formal digital correspondence between citizen and government so that it becomes understandable for everyone. We will increase user-friendliness by using new technologies such as chatbots. That makes it even more important to pay closer attention to the understandability of (digital) letters from government. Citizens and entrepreneurs can choose how digitally accessible they want to be. In elaborating this policy, we will still leave latitude for the individual nature of the various government organisations. We will reach government-wide agreements on these issues.
- We will be launching the first version of MijnOverheid voor Ondernemers, specifically for entrepreneurs, before the summer of 2019. This will enable entrepreneurs to exchange messages with, and access data held by, various government organisations. Before the summer of 2019, the Berichtenbox Bedrijven (Business Message Box) will have been integrated with MijnOverheid voor Ondernemers for the first group of businesses. Over the next few years, in a step-by-step process, we will be expanding MijnOverheid voor Ondernemers on the basis of the most urgent wishes and needs of the entrepreneurs themselves.
- Because the Chamber of Commerce is the first port of call for many entrepreneurs, we will also be transferring the Ondernemersplein to the Chamber of Commerce website before the summer of 2019. The information section of KvK.nl will then become the Ondernemersplein. To broaden the overall outreach, the content of the Ondernemersplein will also be accessible via the channels operated by other government organisations. This step will have been taken for at least 10 organisations by the summer of 2019.
- We will be introducing a European gateway for accessing all widely used services within the European Union: the Single Digital Gateway. A number of these services must be made fully digitally available for cross-border transactions within the EU. With respect to these services, citizens and enterprises will be given the right to submit their data on just one occasion, within the entire EU. Agreements on this service will be laid down in a European regulation. In 2019, we will be submitting an impact analysis for its intended introduction in the Netherlands.
Standardisation
- Information and service provision for citizens and entrepreneurs must be accessible, secure and reliable. We intend to reach clear agreements on these issues. Integrated services also call for the sharing of information and cooperation among the different divisions of government, sector organisations and private parties (for example, concerning security, social security, education and healthcare). This too will require new agreements. These include a number of basic agreements to allow citizens and entrepreneurs to take control of their own data. We will also be introducing a special standardisation agenda that will also focus on supervision and enforcement.
- We recognise that progress based on standards such as Standard Business Reporting helps to reduce administrative burdens for entrepreneurs and makes it easier to do business with government. We are therefore actively searching for other sectors in which these standards could deliver potential added value, and will be encouraging the broader use of such standards.
Guaranteeing secure information and services
- We are investing in improvements in information security for government services. This also relates to the way in which civil servants handle personal data. We in government will do everything we can to prevent personal data becoming public knowledge. Systems and processes must also be well secured. Government organisations are responsible for their own information security. Government-wide cooperation is aimed at uniformity and standardisation wherever possible and necessary. The systems we build will, at all times, satisfy the requirements of government information security. We will be investigating what this means for legislation and supervision. In the autumn of 2018, we will be informing the Lower House of the Dutch Parliament about the further implementation of improved information security in government.