All people – including employees – have a right to respect for their privacy. In order to achieve our societal and organisational objectives, the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport has to be able to collect and share data. Protecting personal data and processing data in accordance with the law are key elements of this process. The Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport attaches great importance to respect for privacy. We process personal data in a lawful, fair and transparent manner, in full accordance with the law. In addition, our ministry shares personal data, reports, files and other sensitive information in a secure manner. In principle no processing of personal data takes place outside the European Economic Area (EEA).
Transparency at the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport
The Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport informs you at an early stage about the personal data it processes, and the purpose and legal basis for doing so. You can find an overview of the data processing for which the Ministry is responsible by consulting the Ministry’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) processing records (in Dutch).
This privacy statement explains how the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport handles personal data.
This general privacy statement applies to all personal data the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport needs to use in the course of performing its tasks.
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More specific privacy statements concerning specific types of data processing:
What is personal data?
Personal data is information that directly concerns a specific individual or can be traced back to them. Examples of personal data include postal addresses, telephone numbers and email addresses.
Sensitive personal data
Some personal data is particularly sensitive, because its collection and use can have a big impact on someone’s life. Data concerning someone’s race, religion or health is considered sensitive personal data. This kind of data is subject to special protection under the law. Likewise, children’s personal data and criminal record or judicial data are always considered sensitive, and are therefore always subject to extra protection.
For more information about personal data please visit the website of the Data Protection Authority.
Why does the Ministry process your personal data?
The Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport regularly records, consults, maintains and provides personal data. We do this, for example, when conducting public health and other studies, handling applications under the Open Government Act, dealing with objections, assessing grant applications, inspecting healthcare services and conducting the national vaccination programme.
The Ministry also maintains various registers. The Dutch Healthcare Professionals (BIG) Register contains the names, addresses, qualifications and work experience of healthcare professionals. The Donor Register contains details of which organs an individual is willing to donate after their death, or details of the person authorised to decide this on their behalf.
This privacy statement applies only to the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport itself. Its various services, institutions, inspectorates and secretariats of boards and committees explain on their own websites how they handle personal data in the course of their activities, why they process data and how they ensure it is handled appropriately. For an organisational overview of the Ministry as a whole, see our organisational chart. There are also a number of non-departmental agencies (in Dutch) that work in concert with the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport. You can learn more about how they safeguard your privacy by visiting their websites.
The Ministry’s various statutory tasks are set out in the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport (Organisation) Order (in Dutch). In performing these statutory tasks, parts of the Ministry may process personal data.
What does the Ministry do with your personal data?
The Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport applies a number of principles when processing personal data and takes measures to ensure it handles data in a reliable, fair and careful manner.
Purpose and legal basis
The Ministry processes personal data only if it has a legal basis for doing so or if consent has been granted. We ensure that personal data is processed only for the specific purpose for which it was collected. Where consent has been granted, you can withdraw consent at any time in the same way you granted it.
The least amount of data possible
The Ministry does not process more personal data than is necessary. Where possible it processes a small amount of data or no data at all.
Minimising the infringement of privacy
The Ministry ensures that any infringement of privacy is not disproportionate to the purpose for which the data was collected. Wherever possible the Ministry always opts for the data that constitutes the least infringement of privacy.
Retention period
The Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport retains your personal data:
- for as long as is necessary to achieve the purpose for which it was collected;
- for the length of time required by the Public Records Act; and
- for no longer than is permitted under the law.
Reliability, integrity and confidentiality
The Ministry employs a range of measures to ensure that your personal data is handled in a reliable, fair and careful manner.
- All personal data is treated in confidence. This means your data can be processed only by persons with both the proper authority and a duty of confidentiality.
- Personal data is protected appropriately. At a minimum we observe the rules and standards on information security laid down by central government.
- The Ministry makes agreements about security measures with external parties such as software providers and data centres. And we monitor whether external parties comply with these agreements. Like other central government organisations, the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport expects its suppliers to make the protection of personal data a top priority.
In certain cases the Ministry is authorised, and sometimes even required, to provide data and information to or request them from other organisations (within and outside central government). For example:
The Dutch Healthcare Professionals (BIG) Register, which is maintained by the Central Information Unit on Healthcare Professions (CIBG), provides information on a healthcare provider's competences, but says nothing about their areas of specialisation. The Royal Dutch Medical Association (KNMG) maintains a register of healthcare professionals’ areas of specialisation, such as cardiology. The registers of both organisations exchange data back and forth. Similarly, the Dutch Healthcare Professionals (BIG) Register and the Healthcare Disciplinary Boards (in Dutch) exchange information. If a disciplinary measure is imposed on a doctor, for example, the disciplinary board will inform the CIBG, which will register the information in the BIG Register. This information is subsequently fed into the KNMG’s register.
The Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport exercises the utmost care and caution when it comes to providing personal data to third parties. No data is shared with external parties without first assessing the lawfulness of doing so. If we provide data to a third party, appropriate arrangements will be made to ensure that your personal data is handled with due care. The provision of personal data to other organisations is permitted only if it is compatible with the purpose for which the information is provided.
The Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport also conducts scientific research, and uses personal, company and institutional data for this purpose. As soon as possible after receiving such data, we render it free of all personal characteristics that directly identify an individual. After the data has been anonymised or, if this is not possible, pseudonymised, the Ministry can use it to conduct statistical research.
Should it be necessary to process non-anonymised personal data, we ask the consent of the person concerned. In all cases we minimise the amount of potentially traceable data we process. We also make sure that the results of our research are not traceable to individual persons.
The Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport takes appropriate technical and organisational measures when storing and processing your personal data. When new policies and systems are developed, a privacy and information-security analysis is drawn up, and on that basis protective measures may be taken. When it comes to information security, including the protection of personal data, we observe national and international standards and guidelines. We also regularly evaluate whether security measures are still adequate and take action in the event of any incidents that occur.
The Ministry wants to ensure careful handling of personal data at an early stage, both technically and organisationally. This means that careful attention is paid to privacy from the moment that policy is developed until it is implemented in practice. When it comes to ICT products and services in particular, privacy considerations are taken into account right from the design phase. Data minimisation is an important principle in this regard: no more personal data is processed than is strictly necessary to achieve the purpose for which the data is to be collected.
The Ministry provides services online and via social media, and uses external platforms like X and LinkedIn. It is important to note that the Ministry has no influence over how these platforms handle personal data. You are advised not to unnecessarily share privacy-sensitive data via these platforms, and not to share any medical data whatsoever.
The Ministry expects its suppliers to make every effort to prioritise the protection of personal data, and to this end it concludes the necessary agreements with its suppliers.
What privacy rights do you have?
You have the right to:
- access your data;
- rectify your data;
- delete your data;
- restrict the processing of your data;
- transmit your data to another party.
If you wish to know what personal data of yours we have processed, you can submit a request to this end. You must submit this request to the organisation within the Ministry that processed the data in question. Please consult the Ministry’s organisational chart to find the organisation concerned.
If your data is incorrect, incomplete or irrelevant, you can submit an additional request for your data to be rectified or supplemented.
Exercising your rights
When it comes to your personal data, you have several rights, such as the right to access and rectify your data. If you wish to know what personal data of yours we have processed, you can submit a request to this end. The Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport will respond to your request within one month.
You can submit a request to us in two ways:
By email
Send an email to: dienstpostbusavg@minvws.nl
By letter
Send a letter to:
Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport
Organisation, Personnel and Operational Management Department
Core Ministry Privacy Office
CIO and Information Management Division
Postbus 20350
2500 EB Den Haag
If your data is incorrect, incomplete or irrelevant, you can submit an additional request for your data to be changed or supplemented.
If you disagree with the resulting decision, you can lodge an objection and, if applicable, an application for judicial review.
Data Protection Officer
Our ministry has a data protection officer. This person is an independent appointee who monitors whether the Ministry applies and complies with the rules laid down in the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The Dutch Data Protection Authority is responsible for supervising the application of privacy legislation. If you have a specific question or wish to lodge a complaint, you can contact the Ministry’s data protection officer. You can do this in two ways:
By email
Send an email to: FG-VWS@minvws.nl
By letter
Send a letter to:
Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport
Administrative and Political Affairs Department
Postbus 20350
2500 EB Den Haag
For more information about your rights or to lodge a complaint, please contact the Data Protection Authority.
This privacy statement is revised regularly.