OECD Regulatory Policy Outlook 2025

The Netherlands continues to progress its regulatory practices with an updated regulatory impact assessment (RIA) framework, improvements to regulatory oversight and quality control in ex post evaluation and supporting measures to increase the systematic use of evaluations. The Netherlands was an early adopter of regulatory reform policies and exhibits a culture of open stakeholder engagement processes and has recently improved useability of its longstanding central government website. The current better regulation agenda focusses on operability, particularly on enforcement.

A significant development has been the replacement of the Integraal Afwegingskader with the Beleidskompas, or “Policy Compass”, a framework for RIA across the central government. All policymakers must work within the Beleidskompas, whether proposing, revising, or evaluating a policy or regulatory act. Under the new framework, RIA scope and proportionality are embedded via a scan questionnaire that tests several impacts around the themes of people, society, and environment. The mandatory RIA modules are identified and the proportional level of RIA is determined based on the scale of anticipated impacts. Additionally, regulation (Regeling Periodiek Evaluatieonderzoek) requires every ministry to create a publicly available Strategic Evaluation Agenda (SEA). The SEA lists all evaluations on ministries’ budget lines and enables later ex post synthesis reports. The new rules also mandate periodic reviews on the most important ‘policy themes’ of a ministry, the design of which is sent to parliament.

The Unit for Judicial Affairs and Better Regulation Policy within the Ministry of Justice and Security is responsible for scrutinising compliance with the RIA framework. The Better Regulation Unit within the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy co-ordinates the regulatory burden reduction program and provides oversight on the quality of assessments. The Dutch Advisory Board on Regulatory Burden (ATR) advises on proposed rules during the early rule-making stages. The Inspectorate of the State Budget within the Ministry of Finance oversees ministries' compliance with requirements to monitor and evaluate regulations after implementation and co‑ordinates the government-wide ex post evaluation framework.