Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations

The Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations (; BZK) is the Netherlands' ministry responsible for domestic policy, civil service, public administration, elections, local governments, intelligence, and kingdom relations. The minister of the interior and kingdom relations is a member of the Cabinet of the Netherlands. The ministry was created in 1798 as the Department of Internal Police, to monitor the state of dikes, roads, and waters of the Batavian Republic. It became the Ministry of the Interior in 1876 and had several name changes before adopting its current name in 1998. Hanke Bruins Slot has been its incumbent minister since January 2022. History A precursor of the ministry, the Department for Internal Policy and Supervision on the State of Water Works, was founded in the Batavian Republic in 1798. This department was renamed Ministry of the Interior in 1801, and this name carried through when the Netherlands regained its independence in 1813. Its initial scope included such diverse policy areas as education, commerce, public health and telegraphy.