KHN hands over Regeldruk Actieplan Horeca to Lower House

Concrete recommendations for reduced regulatory burden in hospitality industry

On Wednesday 15 January, Koninklijke Horeca Nederland (KHN) presented the Regeldruk Actieplan Horeca (Regulatory Burden Action Plan for the Hotel and Catering Industry) to the Lower House. This plan contains concrete recommendations to reduce the regulatory burden on hotel and catering entrepreneurs and thus strengthen the hotel and catering sector in the Netherlands.

The many and complex legal obligations for hospitality operators hamper growth and innovation within the sector. This puts pressure on hospitality and leads to rising prices, affecting the guest experience, profitability and future-proofing of the hospitality industry. The current cabinet announced its intention to reduce the regulatory burden on business. KHN warmly welcomes this intention and therefore took the initiative to make concrete recommendations on behalf of the hospitality industry. With the Regulatory Pressure Action Plan for the Hotel and Catering Industry, KHN presents a first list of regulatory pressure problems that the hotel and catering industry is struggling with. KHN would like to work with the Lower House, ministries and civil servants to be the first to tackle this list and thus reduce the regulatory pressure in the hotel and catering industry.

Concrete recommendations

The Regeldruk Actieplan Horeca makes concrete recommendations for:

• Directly addressable rules. For example, the obligation under the Alcohol Act to have all supervisors in charge on the shop floor (day supervisors), in addition to owners and managers, credited on the appendix of the Alcohol Act licence. This obligation costs a lot of time and money due to frequent staff changes. For the responsible dispensing of alcohol, the main purpose of the Alcohol Act, this crediting obligation is really not necessary. Instead, it is much better, for instance, to make it compulsory to always have an employee with a Certificate of Social Hygiene present. After all, there is already a public register for that, where this can be checked on the spot. 
• Avoidable regulatory burden. There are concrete plans for stricter rules around child marketing. KHN understands the cabinet's desire to reduce children's exposure to marketing, but the current plans go way too far. For example, there is a plan to ban even the word 'children's menu' or 'children's ice cream', even though these designations are often used in the catering industry to indicate smaller portions. These plans do not serve the intended purpose - protecting children from less healthy food - and impose unnecessary restrictions on entrepreneurs. Proportionality of the rules is far from the case here, and this can and should be changed.
• Complex regulatory issues. Think about long-term problems that require close cooperation between the government, trade unions and industry associations. Such as the regulations surrounding absenteeism and reintegration of sick employees, the high and low ww premium and the obligation to continue to pay wages during illness. 

Call by KHN; tackle reducing regulatory burden together with the hospitality industry at

"Hospitality entrepreneurs want to do business, but currently it costs them an unnecessary amount of time, effort and money due to the huge amount of regulations," said KHN president Marijke Vuik. "The cabinet previously came up with plans to reduce the regulatory burden. We would like to work with the cabinet on this and are convinced that the action plan is a good basis for this."