# Ministry of Justice and Security

The Ministry of Justice and Security (Dutch: Ministerie van Justitie en Veiligheid; JenV) is the Dutch ministry responsible for justice, imprisonment and public security. The ministry was created in 1798 as the Department of Justice, before it became in 1876 the Ministry of Justice. In 2010, it took over the public safety duties from the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations and became Ministry of Security and Justice. In 2017 the ministry was renamed to Ministry of Justice and Security.
On 1 March 2020, future prime minister of the Netherlands Dick Schoof became secretary-general of the Ministry of Justice and Security, the most senior non-political position within the ministry. In his role, he was involved in negotiations on asylum reform. Upon reaching the legal retirement age in March 2024, Schoof chose not to retire and was granted an exemption to continue working for three more years; however, that year he became prime minister.
The ministry is headed by the Minister of Justice and Security, David van Weel (VVD) since 2 July 2024.

## Responsibilities

The ministry has the legal tasks of:
* providing workable legislation for the public, the government and the courts;
* preventing crime, in order to build a safer society;
* protecting youth and children;
* enforcing the law, in order to build a safer society;
* providing independent, accessible and effective administration of justice and legal aid;
* providing support to the victims of crime;
* providing fair, consistent and effective enforcement of punishment and other sanctions;
It is also responsible for the coordination of counter-terrorism policy. The ministry oversaw migration policy until the separate Ministry of Asylum and Migration was established in July 2024.
Because it shares many responsibilities and has twin buildings (both old and new) with the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations, they are sometimes called the twin ministries.

## Organisation

The ministry is headed by Minister David van Weel, who is supported by State Secretaries Ingrid Coenradie (Justice and Security) and Teun Struycken (Legal Protection). It employs almost 30,000 civil servants, located at the ministry in the Hague and all around the Netherlands. The ministry's main office is located in the centre of the Hague in the same building as the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations. The civil service is headed by a secretary-general and a deputy secretary-general, who head a system of three directorates-general:
* The Directorate-General for Legislation, International Affairs and Immigration
* The Directorate-General for Prevention, Youth and Sanctions
* The Directorate-General for the Administration of Justice and Law Enforcement
The Board of Procurators General (Dutch: Raad van Procureurs-Generaal) which heads the Public Prosecution Service (in Dutch: Openbaar Ministerie, OM) is a relatively independent organisation which forms part of the Judiciary and prosecutes persons suspected of breaking the law.
The Netherlands Forensic Institute is an autonomous division of the Ministry of Justice, falling under the Directorate-General for the Administration of Justice and Law Enforcement. The Custodial Institutions Agency is an agency of the ministry.