Ministry of Security and Justice (Netherlands)

Ministry of Security and Justice

Ministerie van Veiligheid en Justitie
Coat of arms of the Netherlands
Former building of the Ministry of Justice (1977–2012)
Department overview
Formed	March 12, 1798 (1798-03-12)
Jurisdiction	Kingdom of the Netherlands
Headquarters	Schedeldoekshaven 100, The Hague, Netherlands
Employees	30,000
Annual budget	€9,8 billion (2013)
Minister responsible	Ard van der Steur, Minister of Security and Justice
Website	Ministry of Security and Justice

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 is headed by the Minister of Security and Justice, Ard van der Steur.

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 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.

External links

Official

• (Dutch) Ministry of Security and Justice Rijksoverheid