Companies which reach large out of court settlements to avoid legal action should face a period of probation to make sure that they do change their behaviour, the head of the public prosecution service says in an interview with Friday’s Financieele Dagblad.

Companies such as ING should have to undergo a compulsory improvement programme which will be closely monitored to make sure they are making progress, Gerrit van der Burg told the paper.

Improvement programmes are currently voluntary.

‘This is what the probation service does,’ Van der Burg said. ‘I realise it is a strange comparison so you could call it monitoring.’ The special controllers would would either be compliance officers or court-appointed curators, he said.

‘We cannot yet enforce these measures but we should want to,’ he said.

Approval

In addition, Van der Burg said he would like to see judges check the size of out of court settlements signed with the corporate sector. This he says, boost the transparency of the settlement system.

‘I read the paper and I have neighbours,’ he said. ‘I understand society’s criticism of the settlements.’

Earlier this month, it emerged that the Dutch government is considering setting up a blacklist of companies which have reached out of court settlements for breaking the law, and excluding them from bidding for state contracts.

In addition, officials from the economic affairs and finance ministers are investigating whether existing contracts with companies which have been fined can be torn up.