Should the VOG screening process be extended to include administrative fines?
Research shows that including administrative fines in the screening process for a Certificate of Conduct (in Dutch: VOG) is not currently feasible.
This is put forward in a study (English summary available) conducted by the Institute of Criminal Law and Criminology and the Department of Constitutional and Administrative Law of Leiden University commissioned by the Research and Documentation Centre (WODC).
The Dutch Certificate of Conduct is a widely used form of background screening, which aims to prevent breaches of the integrity of vulnerable persons, companies, organisations or sectors. Administrative fines are increasingly applied to tackle serious, complex offences. The study considers to what extent it is feasible and desirable to include administrative fines in the screening process for a certificate of conduct. Doing so would provide a more complete picture about a person.
Besides all sorts of considerations in relation to actual substance, according to the researchers there are also many practical obstacles to consider in including administrative fines in the screening process. For example, there are very few clear (central) registration systems for administrative fines. There are also many objections concerning the privacy and the legal position of the fined offender.
Furthermore, the researchers also note that it is questionable whether the present policy on the certificate of conduct achieves its objectives, so that it is doubtful whether extending the screening process to include (certain) administrative fines would actually be effective.