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Good practice Imported

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

Netherlands · The Hague · See the Netherlands profile · See the The Hague profile

Evidence: Observational / pre–post Top 32% 67/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

The Netherlands' mandatory Algoritmeregister lists 609 government algorithms — one of Europe's largest public registers — but the national Court of Audit found nearly half of reviewed AI systems had little or no documented risk assessment.

609
Algorithms documented in the national register (2024)
at least 120
AI systems identified in use across central government (2024)
nearly 50 %
Reviewed AI systems with little or no documented risk assessment (2024)
The Netherlands' National Algoritmeregister — Europe's Largest Public Algorithm Register, and What the Court of Audit Found Missing

Details

Maturity
Established
Promoter
Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations (Dutch national government)
Period
2022–2024
Keywords
algorithmic transparency, digital government, AI oversight, public sector accountability

Context

Launched by the Dutch national government in 2022, the Algoritmeregister 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.

Activities

By 2024 the register held 609 documented algorithms spanning central government ministries, agencies, municipalities and other public bodies, making it one of the largest public algorithm registers in Europe.

Results

The Netherlands Court of Audit (Algemene Rekenkamer), an independent supreme audit institution, reviewed AI use in central government in its 2024 'Focus on AI in the Dutch central government' investigation and 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.

Conclusions

Registration and genuine risk governance are two different achievements: a public catalogue of 609 algorithms can scale nationally, but the Netherlands' own independent watchdog found that documenting an algorithm's existence is not the same as managing its risk, with nearly half of the audited systems lacking a documented risk assessment.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Medium (€50k–€500k) — Operating a national searchable register across ministries, agencies and municipalities since 2022 implies an ongoing central-government maintenance cost, though no specific budget figure is published.
Time to results
Long (> 3 years) — The register has run continuously since 2022 and by 2024 had grown to 609 entries -- established, ongoing infrastructure rather than a bounded pilot.
Staffing & skills
Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations register administrators, Netherlands Court of Audit (Algemene Rekenkamer) auditors

Conditions for success

  • a legal/policy mandate requiring public bodies to publish high-impact algorithm entries
  • independent audit capacity (the Court of Audit) to check registration against actual risk-management practice
  • a single national searchable platform rather than fragmented per-agency listings

Common failure modes

  • publishing an algorithm's existence in the register does not itself guarantee a documented risk assessment -- the Court of Audit found this gap in nearly half of reviewed systems
  • even where risk was assessed, issues such as privacy violations were still identified

Commonly funded by

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Data sources

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