Inspections by government organisations

Do you run a business in the Netherlands? Dutch government inspectors may visit your company for an inspection. You may receive inspections from government agencies such as the Netherlands Labour Authority (Nederlandse Arbeidsinspectie, NLA), the Netherlands Tax Administration, the fire department and municipal or provincial authorities. Their inspectors will check if you comply with the law, for example on fire safety, environmental safety, and working conditions.

What are inspectors allowed to do?

What inspectors can and cannot do, is regulated in the General Administrative Law Act (Algemene wet bestuursrecht, Awb). Inspectors are, for instance, allowed to:

• Visit your premises for inspections, without advance warning.
• Enter your business premises, even without your permission. However, they do need your permission to enter if you run your business from home.
• Inspect your company car, ship, or other company vehicles. For instance, to see what you are transporting. The inspector has the right to stop your vehicle.
• Open packaging, take samples, and inspect and copy documents. If it is not possible to make copies on the spot, the inspector is allowed to take documents with them. You will receive a written proof.
• They may be authorised to give warnings, impose penalties, and seize goods.

Inspectors must always be able to prove their identity.

What to do during an inspection?

During the inspection, you and your staff members must give full assistance to the inspector.

• Upon request, you must, for example, open doors or packaging, move items, and find documents or other data.
• You are obliged to answer their questions, unless you are under a formal obligation to secrecy by law, by office, or by profession.

Public disclosure of inspection data

The inspector will discuss the results of their inspection with you and draw up a report. These reports are often made public. This means your company’s or organisation’s name is visible to the general public. For instance the Netherlands Labour Authority (in Dutch) and the Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (in Dutch) make their inspection data public.

Important inspection organisations

A number of organisations that may visit your business are:

• Authority for Consumers and Markets (Autoriteit Consument & Markt, ACM)
• Dutch Authority for Digital Infrastructure (Rijksinspectie Digitale Infrastructuur, RDI)
• Health Care Inspectorate (Inspectie Gezondheidszorg en Jeugd, IGJ)
• Human Environment and Transport Inspectorate (Inspectie Leefomgeving en Transport, ILT)
• Information and Heritage Inspectorate (Inspectie Overheidsinformatie en Erfgoed)
• Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (Nederlandse Voedsel- en Warenautoriteit, NVWA)
• Netherlands Labour Authority (Nederlandse Arbeidsinspectie)
• Netherlands Tax Administration (Belastingdienst)

Fines

If an inspection reveals you do not keep to the rules, you are in breach of legislation. The inspection body will let you know how you can repair this violation (remedial sanction, herstelsanctie). Do you fail to comply? In general:

• The inspection body can impose periodic penalty payments. You will have the opportunity to restore your violation of regulations and you have to pay a fine.
• The inspection body may impose coercive administrative action. This means they will restore your fault (and the inspection body is allowed to seize goods or close off your site until this has happened) at your cost.
• The inspection body can impose an administrative fine. You may be fined without getting the chance to repair your violation.

All government inspection bodies are allowed to this. Do you disagree with a decision made by the inspection body? You can object to the inspection body that imposed the measure.