We are committed to using data responsibly to help citizens and entrepreneurs and resolve societal issues. The government must have the right data at the right time to make better decisions faster. Data sharing problems must be solved and data must become more findable, usable and exchangeable. Processes must be thoroughly overhauled, prioritising citizens and entrepreneurs and organising the data around them. This calls for data-savvy government organisations with high-quality data, which is also crucial for the development of AI and proactive service delivery.
Why as 1 government?
- With the Federated Data System, we will share data responsibly in the same way everywhere in government. We now have to make sure everyone connects.
- We must remove the partitions between government organisations: data remains at the source and is organised uniformly, making it more findable, usable, reusable and exchangeable. We will establish clear rules on the responsible use of data across organisational boundaries, and implement safeguards for responsible use.
- We will address data sharing issues. Data can be more optimally utilised across the boundaries of government organisations to better serve citizens and entrepreneurs and solve societal problems.
- We will reshape processes, prioritising citizens and entrepreneurs and organising data from various organisations around them.
Strategic goals
Together, we will set the following strategic goals for the Netherlands’ Digitalisation Strategy:
- A government-wide, data-driven approach through the federated data system, with binding agreements and standards. Domain-specific trust frameworks must comply with the same standards.
- A government-wide system is in place to identify, collectively resolve and prevent data bottlenecks encountered by organisations.
What obstacles currently exist?
- There is currently no connection to the federated data system for all government organisations. This is too voluntary, and the current funding system impedes data sharing.
- Standards and implementation deadlines are too voluntary, and legislation is not yet used for this purpose; direction and support for the implementation of mandatory standards are lacking.
- There are bottlenecks around data use in several areas (legal, technical, societal, ethical). More guidance and persistence are needed to overcome these bottlenecks. Bottlenecks must be brought to attention administratively and politically.
- So far, digitalisation has focused primarily on digitalising existing processes and optimisation within organisations, rather than reviewing processes in chains with today’s data capabilities.
In what areas will we accelerate development as one government
- We will intensify the development and testing of standards that will eventually become mandatory. We will review the funding system for data sharing.
- We will oversee the adoption, implementation and legal mandation of standards (e.g., under Article 3 of the Digital Government Act).
- There will be a decree to establish the Central Commission on Data Usage, and we will develop a process to detect and identify bottlenecks, as well as a unified approach to eliminate them.
- A central role will be created to drive the redesign of processes in chains. In addition, the responsibility for data, including the development of data maturity, will be vested in organisations.
