Parliamentary investigation

The Dutch House of Representatives, the Tweede Kamer has various types of investigation at its disposal. Each type is outlined in a scenario, which is part of the Standing Orders.

Roughly speaking, three types of investigation can be distinguished:

• Staff members of the Tweede Kamer  or external organisations/institutions carry out an investigation on behalf of the Tweede Kamer.
• The Tweede Kamer appoints a temporary committee to carry out an investigation.
• The Tweede Kamer sets up a parliamentary inquiry committee. The parliamentary inquiry is the most far-reaching type of investigation available to the Tweede Kamer. It will be initiated as a last resort.    

The Tweede Kamer and the Eerste Kamer, the Dutch Senate, are entitled either separately orin a joint sitting of both chambers, to initiate a parliamentary inquiry. A parliamentary inquiry is a thorough investigation into a certain subject. The temporary committee appointed for the specific purpose of conducting the inquiry gathers information and hears witnesses. The right to initiate such inquiries is a far-reaching parliamentary right: witnesses called by the committee are under obligation to appear before it and the committee is entitled to hear them under oath. To this day, the Senate has never made use of its right to set up such an inquiry.

Apart from these inquiries, the Tweede Kamer  can also have investigations carried out without making use of the possibilities offered by the Parliamentary Inquiry Act.

Investigations have been carried out into climate change and into the sending of troops to join the forces of the United Nations. Making use of the right to set up an inquiry may be considered unwise from a political point of view at times, and the hearing of witnesses under oath is also not always deemed necessary. On the other hand, using the inquiry privileges may prove necessary to get key witnesses to appear before the committee or to gain access to certain documents. In many cases, solutions can be found without making use of this heavy instrument. If hearing witnesses under oath is not necessary, the House of Representatives can opt for another type of investigation.

History

In the 19th century, the key purpose of parliamentary inquiries was for members of parliament to learn more about certain issues relevant to society. In fact, the inquiries were what hearings are today. After World War II, a parliamentary inquiry was held in order to exercise some control, in retrospect, over a period in which the country had had no parliament. In 1975, the law was amended so as to allow for the hearing under oath of ministers (and civil servants) as well, which revitalised the right to inquiry, which had almost been forgotten.

 The number of parliamentary inquiries held has increased considerably since the nineteen-eighties. A number of parliamentary inquiries have had political consequences. The so-called "passport inquiry", for example, lead to the resignation of then minister Van Eekelen and state secretary Van der Linden. However, an inquiry does not have to end this way. The main purpose of inquiries is fact-finding and making recommendations on the policies and legislation deemed necessary for the future. An inquiry into social security, for example, lead to entirely new structures for both the supervision and implementation of social security programmes.

Since 2002, the Tweede Kamer  has had its own research department, the so-called Investigation & Verification Office. It assists the Tweede Kamer  in any type of investigation. Services rendered include advice on setting up an investigation, the wording of the questions to be answered by the inquiry and assistance in carrying out the actual investigation. The Investigation & Verification Office also tests and verifies the investigation results submitted by the government to the House of Representatives. The Investigation & Verification Office supports MPs and (standing) committees in formulating the exact wording of their inquiry questions. After all, the more exact the question, the more precise the answer will be. Whenever new inquiry questions are worded, the Investigation & Verification Office checks if the House could possibly make use of investigation results that are already available.

If the Tweede Kamer  decides to have an investigation contracted out, the Investigation & Verification Office will take care of the actual procedure. It will search for the party offering the best price-quality ratio. In the course of the investigation, the Investigation & Verification Office carefully monitors the progress and quality of the work performed. The Office also renders assistance to temporary committees carrying out parliamentary inquiries. Among other things it formulates an investigation strategy, makes staff members available to the inquiry committee and carries out quality assurance procedures.

Verification
An important task of the Investigation & Verification Office is the verification of information submitted to the Tweede Kamer  by the government. The MPs regularly receive extensive reports on investigations and studies carried out on behalf of the government. It takes time and expertise to arrive at a well- founded  ssessment of these reports. This is where the Investigation & Verification Office comes in. It performs quality tests on the investigations in question and verifies the results obtained. Among other things, the Office will scrutinize the report for inconsistencies, it will test the investigation methods applied and it will check if the recommendations made are a logical follow-on from the investigation results. In doing so, the Investigation & Verification Office has to answer two key questions. Is the statement made in the report correct? And can the conclusions and policy recommendations be derived from the investigation results?

Consultancy
A Special Presidium Consultant has been appointed in order to ensure the independence of all advice given to the Presidium and the Tweede Kamer  on matters pertaining to investigations. This Consultant is to give advice when requested, but also unprompted. He is independent of the political or administrative organisation of the House of Representatives. The Special Presidium Consultant is an expert familiar with the world of research and investigations, who contributes to the investigative task of the House of Representatives. The position of Special Presidium Consultant is currently held by Mr Hans Kamps. The Investigation & Verification Office provides him with secretarial support.