The new Woo is coming

Woo instruction

With the arrival of the new law, a lot is changing. To help government officials get started, a handbook has therefore been prepared: the Woo Instruction. This instruction is intended as a reference work for the implementation of the Woo requests. The various authorities are themselves responsible for implementing the Woo. How they do this is up to them. The Woo instruction ensures that we deal with Woo requests in the same way within the Rijksoverheid .

The main changes

The Woo is changing a number of things. The main changes are:

• There will be an independent advisory board on public access and information management;

• Each governing body covered by the Woo must designate a contact person to whom anyone can turn with questions about the availability of government information;

• Administrative bodies are going to work on getting their information management in order; the Government Commissioner has been appointed for this purpose;

• In time, the Woo requires active disclosure of designated information;

• The deadline for processing a request will be a maximum of four weeks, with a possible two-week extension;

• Also given the shortened deadline, it is important to get a quick picture of the information request and get in touch with the requester for that purpose;

• Under the Wob, personal policy opinions were already made public more often; that line continues under the Woo;

• Information older than five years is also subject to disclosure.