"Transparency Benchmark" is a process conducted by the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation aimed at stimulating transparency of Netherlands' largest companies and organisations in terms of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) by producing quality reports without requiring regulation. This process was started in 2003 through collaboration with the business organisations to establish a ranking system.
The 2010 version is the seventh edition of this report and it marks a broadening of the review. Almost 500 companies and organisations have been included, compared to 183 in 2009. Furthermore, the criteria have also been broadened.
Jointly with the Dutch Professional Association of Accountants, the Ministry rewards the best CSR reporting in terms of transparency with a new prize "De Kristal" (the Crystal).

As the EU Modernisation Directive does not provide very specific guidance on reporting non-financial information, and in view of considerable interest in social reporting from Dutch companies and stakeholders, Social and Economic Council of the Netherlands (SER) (a government advisory council consisting of employers and workers´ associations and independent expert members) proposed that the DASB review its existing guideline 400 to provide specific guidance to companies on how to integrate non-financial information into regular financial annual reports 'Guideline for Annual Reporting 400'.
The same Committee also issued guidance on separate social reporting. In view of evolving public expectations about company reporting on CSR, the SER asked the DASB in July 2008 to review its guideline 400 and guidance on separate social reporting again.
The important change in this update is the inclusion of reporting on responsible supply chain practices. This new guidance was issued in November 2009 and applicabled to reporting from 1 January 2010.