A source platform is a public service provided by a third party. It contains Dutch government information. BesluitBron retrieves data from these services but does not manage any of them. If a platform has not recorded a piece of information, BesluitBron cannot find it. If a platform has recorded information incorrectly, BesluitBron will pass it on incorrectly.
The sources side by side
The platforms overlap in terms of subject matter. They differ in the question they answer. That distinction is key to using them correctly.
flowchart LR
V["A question about<br/>government action"]
V --> L["Local government"]
V --> N["National<br/>parliament"]
V --> P["What is official<br/>published"]
V --> R["What a judge!<br/>has ruled"]
V --> A["What used to be on<br/>there was a website"]
L --> ORI["Open Raadsinformatie<br/>331 sources,<br/>exact totals"]
L --> OBV["OpenBesluitvorming<br/>successor, motions<br/>and votes"]
N --> TK["Tweede Kamer<br/>the official<br/>register"]
N --> OTK["OpenTK<br/>the text of<br/>the same documents"]
P --> OB["Official<br/>Public notices<br/>enactment of a licence into law"]
R --> RS["Rechtspraak<br/>published<br/>rulings"]
A --> OA["Open Archivaris<br/>closed crawl<br/>until 2021"]
The four differences a reader needs to know:
- A decision by a local council is not a decision by the Tweede Kamer. A Woo publication by a ministry is neither. A response that does not specify the administrative level is of no use;
- Tweede Kamer is authoritative in terms of the decisions and votes taken by Parliament, but only searches titles. OpenTK searches the text of the same documents and is in no way authoritative: it is an index compiled by a volunteer and not a register;
- Officiële Bekendmakingen contains what has been formally published and therefore has legal effect. A council document at Open Raadsinformatie describes the process leading up to this, rather than the public notice itself;
- Open Archivaris is closed. The crawl associated with it stopped on 30 July 2021 and will not resume. That source therefore answers questions about the past, but none about the present.
What a platform says about itself
None of the platforms were built by BesluitBron. Their features have been measured and have not been taken from the documentation. If the measurement and the documentation contradict each other, the measurement takes precedence and the contradiction is recorded as a finding. Every page on Bronnen states the date of that measurement.
Four features have been defined for each platform and are listed on that platform’s page:
- whether the total given is an exact figure or an estimate, which has an impact on Zoekprecisie;
- whether there is a limit on the number of requests, and if so, what it is;
- how far back in time the cover extends, and where it ends;
- which defects are known, and what impact they have on a response.
News content varies by publication, not just by platform
Open Raadsinformatie and OpenBesluitvorming per administrative body. The number of hits may have stalled at one body whilst continuing to rise at a neighbouring one. A national figure on the up-to-date status of such a platform masks that difference. Such a figure is therefore misleading, as an enquiry almost always concerns a single municipality, province or water authority.
As at 16 August 2026, according to Open Raadsinformatie; latest document by province: Flevoland 22 December 2021, Overijssel 2 July 2026, Limburg 10 July 2026. One province has been at a standstill for over four years, whilst the others will continue until July 2026.
That is why list_sources displays the field ‘documents_through’ for both connectors for each body. This is the date of the most recent document from that body that is not in the future. Two things are important to note here:
- Scheduled meetings are listed in the index with a future date, sometimes years in advance. These do not count, as an agenda item for next year says nothing about what has been harvested;
- If the date is missing, the reply explains why. ‘No date’ because a body has nothing, and ‘no date’ because the most recent items are all scheduled meetings, mean the opposite of one another.
On OpenBesluitvorming, this requires a separate search for each organ, as the platform does not provide an overview of all organs. The field only appears once the list at type or search has been narrowed down to a maximum of eight organs. The list itself indicates this, along with the filters required to achieve this.