Samiksha Jaiswal (Editor)

Ministry of Security and Justice (Netherlands)

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Employees
  
30,000

Minister responsible
  
Stef Blok

Annual budget
  
€9,8 billion (2013)

Ministry of Security and Justice (Netherlands)

Formed
  
March 12, 1798; 218 years ago (1798-03-12)

Jurisdiction
  
Kingdom of the Netherlands

Headquarters
  
Schedeldoekshaven 100, The Hague, Netherlands

The Ministry of Security and Justice (Dutch: Ministerie van Veiligheid en Justitie; VenJ) is the Dutch Ministry responsible for Justice and Public safety. The Ministry was created in 1798 as the Department of Justice and in 1876 became the Ministry of Justice, in 2010 it has taken over the Public safety duties from the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations and became Ministry of Security and Justice. The Ministry was headed by the Minister of Security and Justice, Ard van der Steur from 25 March 2015 till 26 January 2017.

Contents

Responsibilities

The Ministry has the legal tasks of:

  • providing workable legislation for the public, the government and the courts;
  • preventing crime, in order to build a safer society;
  • protecting youth and children;
  • enforcing the law, in order to build a safer society;
  • providing independent, accessible and effective administration of justice and legal aid;
  • providing support to the victims of crime;
  • providing fair, consistent and effective enforcement of punishment and other sanctions;
  • regulating immigration into the Netherlands.

    • It is also responsible for the coordination of counter-terrorism policy.

    Because it shares so many responsibilities, and has twin buildings (both old and new) with the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations, they are sometimes called the twin ministries.

    Organisation

    The ministry is currently headed by one minister, Stef Blok and one State Secretary, Klaas Dijkhoff. It employs almost 30,000 civil servants, located at the ministry in the Hague and all around the Netherlands. The ministry's main office is located in the centre of the Hague in the same building as the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations. The civil service is headed by a secretary-general and a deputy secretary-general, who head a system of three directorates-general:

  • The Directorate-General for Legislation, International Affairs and Immigration
  • The Directorate-General for Prevention, Youth and Sanctions
  • The Directorate-General for the Administration of Justice and Law Enforcement

    • The Board of Procurators General (in Dutch: Raad van Procureurs-Generaal) which heads the Public Prosecution Service (in Dutch: Openbaar Ministerie, OM) is a relatively independent organisation which forms part of the Judiciary and prosecutes persons suspected of breaking the law.

    The Netherlands Forensic Institute is an autonomous division of the Ministry of Justice, falling under the Directorate-General for the Administration of Justice and Law Enforcement.

    The Custodial Institutions Agency is an agency of the ministry.

    References

    Ministry of Security and Justice (Netherlands) Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA