On 9 September 2024, the third 'State of Implementation' was published. The State of Implementation is a government-wide inventory that must contribute to closing the gap between politics, policy and implementation. Part of that gap is visible to citizens and companies that do business or have contact with the government. 

In previous editions, attention was mainly paid to mapping the various causes of that gap between policy and implementation. The compilers of this new edition start positively: “public service providers stand up for themselves more”. They communicate more clearly about the problems they encounterIn some cases they also provide solutions for bottlenecks. Improvements are being worked on in many places. These are mainly improvements aimed at optimising specific regulations and at individual public service providers.

To care

Meanwhile, policymakers themselves are advocating more chain-oriented cooperation, as was also advocated earlier this year by then State Secretary Van Huffelen. She also presented plans to further improve the service provision to citizens. Part of this was a channel strategy in which citizens and entrepreneurs themselves choose their preferred channel in their contact with the government and they always have insight into their personal data and current affairs.

At the same time, the steering group chaired by Abdeluheb Choho (former alderman of Amsterdam) is concerned. The individual Statuses of Implementation of various implementation organisations show that problems that transcend organisational and policy areas remain largely unaddressed. These are bottlenecks that arise when multiple laws apply and various organisations have to work together.

Urgency is increasing

Moreover, the urgency is increasing, according to the implementing institutions. Public service providers such as RVO, the Sociale Verzekeringsbank and municipalities are sounding the alarm; they use expressions in their reports such as "no longer sustainable", "the limit is in sight" and "tasks greater than the budget". Demographic developments are further increasing the pressure on public services and the Netherlands is also facing major transitions.

According to the compilers, complicated rules and poor data exchange will continue to be the main bottlenecks in 2024. An example of this is that citizens still have to deal with a multitude of income schemes. As a result, they do not understand how their net income changes when they start working more and what recoveries they can expect.

The implementing bodies refer to the complexity and overlap of regulations, combined with outdated IT at public service providers.

Action points

The 2024 publication sharpens calls from the first State of Implementation:

• Increase the pace of complexity reduction. Show more effort and leadership in civil service and politics: prioritize, choose a social issue and start.
• Involve implementation from the very beginning in policy-making. Therefore, open the policy-making process, make policy feasible and executable and ensure that high-level quality control takes place on this.
• Realize the goal of a single digital government for citizens and entrepreneurs by developing a government-wide digitalization and implementation strategy with more binding agreements.
• Maintain service levels in times of increasing labor market tightness by working smarter.

De State of Implementation 2024 was presented on September 9 by steering group chairman Abdeluheb Choho to Tom van der Lee, vice-chairman of the House of Representatives. The State of Implementation 2024 is here download.

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