4 - From Policy to Reality

Summary

It is not only politicians and policymakers in The Hague who have set ambitious targets for new systems and who are calling for more and better information. In addition to the national plans debated in the Senate and House of Representatives, a variety of local authorities and government agencies are working on their own plans and projects, relatively independently and far removed from parliamentary control. eGovernment is not only being rolled out ‘on the shop floor’; it is also being built there to a significant degree. There is ample scope for bottom-up initiatives. The national systems debated in Parliament are often nothing more than a platform for a multitude of existing local initiatives. That is the case, for example, with the EPD and the Reference Index for Juveniles at Risk. Prior to the official launch of a system – either by national government, a government agency, or a local authority – it has often been trialled extensively in the field, for example in a certified pilot project or in everyday practice, regardless of any formal decision-making. One example of the latter is the practice of Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR, see Section 4.3). There is therefore every reason to examine the user side of eGovernment applications, particularly when the user and the developer are one and the same. That is the case for the Tax and Customs Administration and other large-scale administrative agencies that have long led the way in promoting the benefits of digitization. Local government officials have also been active in that respect, with local needs and requirements inspiring local authorities to develop their own, more tailor-made approach to the electronic child dossier, for example. The police are gradually extending their information toolkit; the Work and Income Chain Computerisation Office (Bureau Keteninformatisering Werk en Inkomen, BKWI) has grown into a crucial source of data for all the organisations acting under the Organisation of Employment and Income Act (Wet Structuur Uitvoeringsorganisatie Werk en Inkomen, SUWI), which in turn cooperate with one another on the digital client dossier (digitaal klantdossier, DKD). The Tax and Customs Administration allows taxpayers to submit their returns online through a secure portal, and the Social Insurance Bank (SVB) is working to extend the ‘Citizen Policy’ website (www.burgerpolis.nl), where individuals can request a personalised statement of their social security status and share stories about their experience of the social security system.