The Halt offices carry out the Halt and Stop programmes under the responsibility of the Public Prosecution Service.
Preventive tasks such as advising, educational programmes and customised projects come under the responsibility of the local authorities to which the Halt office is linked.
In 2004, there were 62 independent Halt offices organised under the old system. In 2005, the sector was restructured.
As the result of expansion in scale, there are now eighteen independent Halt offices in operation since 1 January 2007, a maximum of one for each police region. The new Halt offices together service the whole of the Netherlands.
In addition to the restructuring of the Halt sector there are three other projects: closer sectoral cooperation, planning new cost accounting and harmonisation of the work processes, by using the current quality project. The quality project should lead to certification of the Halt sector by 2008–2009.
