Digital Transformation of the legislation and regulations process chain

Countries

Policy areas

Tags:
accessible lawaccessible official government publicationsdemocracydigital transformationlawOfficial Government Publicationsregulatory

Organisation name KOOP - Knowledge and Exploitation Center of Official Government Publications

Contact person: Onno Muchall

onno.muchall@koop.overheid.nl

In the philosophy of Trias Politica and democracy it’s needless to say that law, regulations and official government information is widely accessible to everyone. Everyone, such as lawmakers, legal professionals, executive government organizations, journalists, scientists and citizens. In these modern times the digital techniques make it not only possible to digitize the law and regulations, but also to offer new solutions to improve access, searchability and benefit from cross-organizational connections.

KOOP is the driving force behind the largest internet portals with official government information: overheid.nl (government.nl), wetten.nl (laws.nl) and officielebekendmakingen.nl (officialpublications.nl). KOOP supports all government organizations on a daily basis to publish the statutory disclosures and availability of laws and regulations, parliamentary documents, permits and international treaties. And we help the government to modernize all phases of the legislative and regulatory process chain for the benefit of all governments, legal professionals, implementers and citizens.

To accomplish this, to digital transform the legislative and regulatory process chain, we started digitizing the Government Gazette (Staatscourant) and from there on we slowly digitalized more and more of the legal publications. For each project we got initial and structural investment from our government clients. Crucial is that for most projects KOOP has a combination of clients (several departments, executive government organizations and local government). Our clients understand that projects in the legislative and regulatory process chain are always cross-organizational.

The mission of KOOP is to stand for the legally valid daily publication, provision and signaling of all government information for the benefit of the Dutch constitutional state. The availability of official government documents, from the publications in the Government Gazette to all applicable laws and regulations, international treaties, official parliamentary documents and local regulations: you have to digitalize all of it or nothing. 

KOOP works in close collaboration with those governing bodies that make the laws. After all, they are responsible for the laws and we for the systems in order to publish these new laws. Legal professionals can always find the relevant applicable and historical laws and regulations. Citizens have immidiate fast access to publications that are relevant to them. Citizens and interest groups can comment on upcoming laws. Government employees can work more effective thanks to law, regulation and official government information available in one digital pocket.

KOOP has the legal task of exploitation and receives the resources for this from the government client. By combining the wishes of clients (multi-client assignments) and always developing on the basis of standardized generic components, KOOP is often able to meet the wishes of its clients for relatively low costs.

In the meantime, KOOP has connected many clients in common solutions, often cross-government:

- A publication site for all official publications of the National Government, the house of representatives and senate, Provinces, Municipalities, Water Boards and Common Regulations

- A generic legislative progress system, in which all departments participate on a voluntary (paying) basis

- A generic automatic publication process (GVOP) in which 400 decentralized authorities voluntarily participate in paying on an individual basis

- A generic Publication of Content Implementation (PUC) system in which a growing number of  organizations are participating on a voluntary basis paying.

In doing so, KOOP actively profiles its knowledge and possibilities to offer added value to its clients. New assignments that KOOP carries out directly contribute to the policy objectives of the various departments. 

After successful completion, the projects are included in the exploitation and KOOP receives structural financing from the client for management and further development.

Potential for adaptability by other member states and levels of government is the following specifics of our program:

- Great clout due to close, professional cooperation with specialized IT companies ;

- Combination of exploitation and proven technologies on the one hand (95%) and innovation / pilots (5%) on the other;

- Substantive knowledge of techniques, but also knowledge of the legislative process and legal aspects, so that pragmatic and workable solutions can be found;

- Great involvement of employees and culture of organization in the success of projects and KOOP;

- The KOOP projects are used by central and local authorities and contribute to the improvement of the legislative chain.

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