On 1 January 2027, the new Archiefwet (Archives Act) will enter into force. For the first time in over thirty years, the Netherlands will have archiving rules written for a digital world rather than for filing cabinets full of paper. And this happens at precisely the moment when that same government is rapidly embracing artificial intelligence. That timing is no coincidence and it may be the most interesting thing about the entire act.
What the Archiefwet is really about
An act about archives may sound like something for dusty storage rooms, but the core is surprisingly relevant: it is about whether we can later reconstruct how the government reached a decision. The archive is the memory of the government and the means by which citizens, journalists, and courts can hold it to account.
The new act therefore places emphasis on durable accessibility: not just preservation, but ensuring that information remains readable, findable, and understandable in context for ten, fifty, or a hundred years from now. In a world where file formats become obsolete and systems are replaced, that is a serious challenge.
What concretely changes
The new act replaces the Archiefwet of 1995, which was entirely oriented towards paper. The most concrete change concerns the transfer periods: government information that must be permanently preserved will henceforth be transferred to a public archive repository after ten years, rather than twenty. The transfer period is thus halved. The reason is practical: digital information becomes obsolete faster than paper, file formats become unusable, and systems are replaced. In short: the sooner you archive properly, the greater the chance that documents can still be consulted later. An added benefit is that information thereby becomes publicly accessible sooner for anyone who wishes to view it.
And then: artificial intelligence
AI introduces an entirely new element. Increasingly, the government uses algorithms and AI to prepare or even make decisions: from assessing risks to evaluating applications. But what is “the document” that must be preserved? The question the user posed to the system? The version of the model? The data it was trained on? The outcome?
If we fail to record this, an AI decision becomes a black box that can no longer be explained after the fact. And that is precisely where things went wrong in affairs like the toeslagenaffaire (childcare benefits scandal): decisions whose origins were barely reconstructable in hindsight. The old question of the Archiefwet “How was this decided?” is made not less but far more urgent by AI. If you want to keep a smart government accountable, you will also need to record the role of the algorithm.
Archiving and AI reinforce each other
Archiving and AI are also deeply intertwined. An AI system is only as reliable as the information it runs on: feed it a disorganised information management system and the AI inherits that disorder, presenting it with a veneer of objectivity. Good archiving is therefore the foundation of reliable AI. Conversely, AI can make archiving itself more manageable, think of classifying documents, identifying duplicates, adding metadata, or assisting with the redaction of documents for requests under the Wet open overheid (Open Government Act). The technology that amplifies the challenge can thus also be part of the solution. There is, however, a tension: storage is cheap and AI is hungry for data, so the temptation is great to preserve everything, while the Archiefwet and privacy legislation specifically call for deliberate selection and proper destruction of what must not be retained.
The memory of a smart government
Viewed this way, the new Archiefwet (Archives Act) is about something far greater than filing cabinets. It raises the question of who guards the memory of a government that increasingly delegates to machines. For as the government becomes smarter, it becomes more important that we can continue to account for what it does, why, and on what basis.
A good archive is not a window onto the past, but the precondition for continuing to trust a digital, AI-driven government. The act enters into force before long. But what is at stake is very concrete: a government that can continue to justify itself, even to the future.
Have questions about the new Archiefwet (Archives Act) after reading this blog? Feel free to contact us.
