Government & open data
PUC (Publicatieplatform)
PUC, the Dutch government’s publication platform for implementation content, holds — in its own words — information from government organisations with implementation, supervision and enforcement duties. That is the level below the statute: policy rules, work instructions, handbooks and information notices through which an implementing body gives practical shape to its statutory powers. KOOP and Logius operate the platform. For anyone trying to understand or challenge a decision, this is often more useful than the statutory text itself, because the official who took the decision found their framework here.
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What this source does not give you
PUC is not a legal source in the legislative sense: a work instruction or handbook does not bind the citizen, and a policy rule binds only the administrative body itself, within the limits of Dutch administrative law. Nor does the platform cover the whole of public administration — it carries a limited number of collections, and bodies that are not on it publish their implementation policy elsewhere or not at all.
Frequently asked questions
- Which organisations publish on PUC?
- The home page names nine collections: the Authority for Nuclear Safety and Radiation Protection (ANVS), the Immigration and Naturalisation Service (IND), ministerial and defence publications, the Military Law Journal, the Dutch Healthcare Authority (NZa), nature permits, the Netherlands Regulatory Framework (NeRF) Maritime, the Council for the Administration of Criminal Justice and Protection of Juveniles (RSJ), and the policy rules of the Social Insurance Bank (SVB). The emphasis is therefore on immigration law, healthcare funding, social security, nuclear safety, maritime regulation and detention law.
- How do I find the version of a policy rule that applied on a given date?
- PUC retains versions and lets you search on them. In the Social Insurance Bank collection you can enter a date in the “valid on” field to find every version of a policy rule that applied at that moment; the range goes back to 3 June 2007. A document also has a “versions” tab listing the superseded policy rules. That is exactly what you need when assessing a decision taken years ago: the current text is the wrong yardstick.
- What is the difference between a work instruction and a policy rule?
- The immigration-service collection carries three kinds of item side by side: work instructions, which according to the service explain a broader topic to staff in support of their work; information notices, temporary communications to staff about current developments; and country reports, public country information. A policy rule — as published by the social insurance bank and the healthcare authority — is a formal instrument by which the body binds itself. A work instruction or information notice has no such status, yet it tells you how decisions are in fact taken.
- How does PUC differ from wetten.overheid.nl?
- wetten.overheid.nl holds consolidated legislation: acts, orders in council and ministerial regulations. PUC begins where that text stops and leaves room for implementation. The Dutch Healthcare Authority describes its PUC collection as the place for policy rules, regulations and tariffs, but also factsheets, forms and executive-board decisions, filterable by care sector, subject, validity and information type. Such items do not appear in the legislation database, even though the outcome of a case often turns on them.