The Netherlands' National Algoritmeregister — Europe's Largest Public Algorithm Register, and What the Court of Audit Found Missing

Launched by the Dutch national government in 2022, the Algoritmeregister (algoritmes.overheid.nl) is a public, searchable database where public bodies must publish information about the high-impact algorithms and AI systems they use — what the system does, what data it uses, and who is accountable.
By 2024 the register held 609 documented algorithms, making it one of the largest public algorithm registers in Europe, spanning central government ministries, agencies, municipalities and other public bodies.
The Netherlands Court of Audit (Algemene Rekenkamer), an independent supreme audit institution, reviewed AI use in central government as part of its 2024 "Focus on AI in the Dutch central government" investigation. It found that government organisations use at least 120 AI systems, and in almost half of those cases little or no attention had been paid to the risks of using them; even where risk was assessed, issues such as privacy violations were still found. The Court separately audited three risk-prediction algorithms as part of its 2024 Accountability Audit.
The honest takeaway is that transparency infrastructure (a public catalogue) can scale nationally, but the audit shows that publishing an algorithm's existence is not the same as managing its risk: registration and genuine risk governance are two different achievements, and the Netherlands' own watchdog found the second lagging behind the first.

Read the full analysis: https://www.digitaleoverheid.nl/overzicht-van-alle-onderwerpen/algoritmes/algoritmeregister/