Employees 3,000 | Annual budget €4,0 billion (2013) | |
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Formed 12 March 1798; 218 years ago (1798-03-12) Jurisdiction Kingdom of the Netherlands Headquarters Turfmarkt 147, The Hague, Netherlands Ministers responsible Ronald Plasterk, Minister of the Interior and Kingdom Relations
Stef Blok, Minister for Housing and the Central Government Sector | ||
The Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations (Dutch: Ministerie van Binnenlandse Zaken en Koninkrijksrelaties; BZK) is the Dutch Ministry responsible for Home Affairs, Civil service Intelligence and the relations with the other countries in the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The Ministry was created in 1798 as the Department of internal police and monitor the state of dikes, roads and waters of the Batavian Republic and in 1876 became the Ministry of the Interior and had several name changes before it became the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations in 1998. The Minister of the Interior and Kingdom Relations (Dutch: Minister van Binnenlandse Zaken en Koninkrijksrelaties) is the head of the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations and a member of the Cabinet of the Netherlands. Stef Blok has been the acting Minister of the Interior and Kingdom Relations since 29 June 2016.
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Responsibilities
The Ministry is called the "Mother of all Ministries" because most ministries, like the former Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality and Ministry of Education, Culture and Science split from the ministry at one time or another or the "residual ministry", because it is left with a diverse set of responsibilities after this process. It has the legal mission to:
Because it shares so many responsibilities, and has twin buildings (both old and new) with the Ministry of Security and Justice, they are sometimes called the twin ministries.
Organization
The ministry is currently headed by one minister and one state secretary. It employs almost 3,000 civil servants. The ministry's main office is located in the centre of The Hague in the same building as the ministry of Justice. The civil service is headed by a secretary general and a vice-secretary general, who head a system of four directorates general:
An important autonomous agency of the ministry is the General Intelligence and Security Service.
History
The ministry was founded in 1798 as the department for internal policy and supervision on the state of water works in Batavian Republic. Since 1801 it has been named Ministry of the Interior, and some other responsibilities have been added to its name: Agriculture (1922-1932) and Kingdom Relations (1998-date). Between 1959 and 1998 a minister was given the portfolio of relations with Surinam, the Dutch Antilles and Aruba in addition to his other portfolios before that, there was a minister of Colonial Affairs, which was called Overseas Affairs after 1945.