# Taxi regulation cut to about 3 inspectors from 17

> State secretary Bertram says the transport inspectorate ILT cut the number of staff regulating taxis between 2022 and 2026, citing budget cuts, rising costs and other priorities.

Politics · published 2026-11-15 05:33 · https://nlnow.nl/a/taxi-inspections-cut-from-17-to-3-full-time-staff/

The number of full-time jobs (fte) the Inspectie Leefomgeving en Transport (ILT) assigns to taxi regulation fell from about 17 in 2022 to about 3 in 2026. State secretary Bertram of Infrastructure and Water Management gave the figures in answers to parliamentary questions, received on 12 November 2026.

The inspectors who regulate taxis belong to a department covering road transport in general, Bertram wrote. According to the ILT, one reason for the cut was that it gave priority to meeting European obligations to check commercial road transport, including working and rest times and whether they are recorded correctly.

The ILT also scaled back taxi work to make room for new tasks and work transferred internally. More recently it cut the effort further to stay within its budget, because of an efficiency target (taakstelling) and shortfalls in implementation. The ILT's annual plan for 2027, sent to parliament, sets this out.

Bertram said budget cuts and rising costs force the ILT to reduce its effort in some areas, and taxi transport is one of them. Taxi rules are national, he said, which leaves more room to adjust the effort than in other areas.

He described the ILT as an independent inspectorate that must set priorities with limited means. It does so using an information-led, risk-based approach and an inspectorate-wide risk analysis (IBRA) of societal harm and risks, and aims to deploy its capacity to prevent as much societal harm as possible.

## Background

- **ILT (Inspectie Leefomgeving en Transport)**: The Human Environment and Transport Inspectorate is a Dutch government inspectorate that supervises compliance with rules on the environment, transport, and infrastructure, and it falls under the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management. Among other sectors, it checks that taxi companies and drivers meet the legal requirements for carrying passengers. Its work covers inspections and enforcement, so it is the body that checks the rules rather than the one that writes them.

From NLnow, news from the Netherlands in English. How stories are made: https://nlnow.nl/about/