Spiritual assistance to people in an institute, was of old a task of churches and religious or philosophical communities. In the intramural health care more and more health care chaplains are working, the position of which is based only on an appointment of the management and not at the same time on a mission of a church or comparable community. This is experienced as a problem, because there is no supervision on the qualities of these health care chaplains. Therefore a committee recently proposed to establish a Council for Independent Spirituality, who tests the qualification and the competence of unattached health care chaplains and take care of their work.

The 2007 Dutch Pardon Regulation, a regularisation programme to settle the legacy of the old immigration law, was meant to deal with backlogs in the settling of asylum procedures. According to the literature there are several risks attached to such regularisation programmes. The parties involved in the implementation of the Dutch Pardon Regulation managed to evade most of these risks, partly because of their great efforts and close cooperation. The results of the Regulation were according to plan with respect to the number of asylum seekers who received a permit in the context of the regulation and their housing. In two respects the Regulation did not have the desired result: temporary shelter in municipalities decreased but was not ended, and it proved difficult to carry through the return of people who were ineligible for the regularisation programme.

The chaplaincy in penitentiary institutions shows a peculiar co-operation between the state and the religious communities. The chaplains provide a safe opportunity for supporting the detainees. The growing religious individualisation as well as a political rethinking of the role of religions institutions ask for system adaptations. In particular, the denominational approach is subject to discussion.