Information request Open Government Act
You may ask the municipality for administrative information. Anyone can ask for information. The municipality does not have to share all information with you.
It may be information on policy or from other documents.
Approach
Here's how to request information:
- Contact the municipality.
- Pass on:
- what you want information about
- which documents you want to view
Cost
The municipality may charge a fee. How much you have to pay depends on how you want to receive the information. You will hear in advance what the cost to you will be.
- free: digital transmission of the information
- free: information on paper in A4 size black and white (maximum 5 pages)
- we charge a fee if you want a lot of information. We will always contact you first
Description
You may ask the municipality for information about policies or from other documents. This is stated in the Open Government Act (Woo).
The municipality can provide the information in the following ways:
- You will receive a copy.
- You may view the document.
- You will receive a summary of the content.
- You will be given information about the content.
- You get the information via the Internet.
Municipalities and other governments will also actively make information public themselves. You can find this information on the Open Government Information Platform.
Terms
The requirements for making a request for information are:
- The information is available at the municipality (and not at, say, a ministry or province).
- You may not see any documents:
- who are about the security of the country
- endangering the king and government
- containing confidential data of companies
- Containing information about the private lives of others (General Data Protection Regulation, AVG)
The municipality may also decide not to disclose the information for other reasons. For example:
- detection and prosecution of crimes
- government inspection, control and supervision
- the protection of the natural area the information is about
Term
The municipality will send you a notice within 4 weeks after your application is received. The municipality may extend this period once by 2 weeks.
Objection and appeal
You can object if you disagree with the decision on your application. Do this within 6 weeks. Is it important that you get an answer quickly? Then also request a provisional ruling (provision) from the court.
After that, do you disagree with the municipality's ruling on your objection? Then appeal to the court.