The municipality of The Hague is going to make information easier to find, accessible and understandable for residents and businesses. During the Open Gov Week recently, alderman Hilbert Bredemeijer launched the new Active Disclosure strategy with which the municipality is taking steps towards an open and transparent government. This strategy gives substance to the Open Government Act (Woo) that has been in force since 2022. This law obliges municipalities to actively make information public.
Public information should be easy to find for residents and businesses, without waiting times, registrations or unnecessary login procedures. The new strategy is working on a culture change to make civil servants aware of open and understandable information. There will also be a transparency index to measure whether residents are satisfied with the information provision
Alderman Bredemeijer believes that residents have the right to information from the municipality: “The municipality should be reliable and transparent for residents and information should be understandable and easy to find. With this new strategy, we are taking a big step towards a truly open government. In this way, we are reducing the distance between the city hall and the people of The Hague. The municipality is there for residents. This includes public and accessible information, as well as clarity about what we cannot share based on the law.”
Residents should have the opportunity to find out information themselves
The municipality of The Hague is already doing a lot to make information available. For example in the Hague Municipal Archives, The Hague in Figures and Datalab The Hague. The new strategy takes the next step towards reliable and accessible information. Many residents are still forced to submit a request to retrieve information. By actively making information public, the municipality wants to prevent this process and make it easy to find information yourself.
Find the strategy itself here (in Dutch).
Photos: Michel Mees.
