Official documents

Through the Swedish principle of public access, the public and the media are entitled to insight into public activities, i.e. government authorities, municipalities and county councils. As a government authority, Finansinspektionen is subject to the principle of public access.

This principle applies to the categorisation "official documents"

Official document

Provisions regarding official documents can be found in the Freedom of the Press Act, which is part of Sweden's constitution.

The Freedom of the Press Act specifies that a document is categorised as "official" if it is stored at an authority or been received or prepared by the authority. A decision made by Finansinspektionen is normally an official document. An application for a job at Finansinspektionen is also an official document.

Notes and drafts (our internal working materials) are not categorised as "official documents".

Confidentiality

The right to access official documents can be limited by confidentiality restrictions. In these cases, the limitation is often related to information where it is assumed that an individual (a person or a firm) will suffer negative consequences if the information were to become known. For Finansinspektionen, for example, firms under supervision and their customers constitute confidential information.

If some of the information in a document is considered confidential, the information is blacked out before the document is released. The Public Access to Information and Secrecy Act (2009:400) contains provisions regarding confidentiality.

How can a person gain access to official documents?

If you would like to gain access to an official document, you can send an email to the registrar, finansinspektionen@fi.se.

As a rule, you are entitled to be anonymous.

When a person requests access to an official document, Finansinspektionen must assess without undue delay if it is possible to release the document.

What does it cost?

There is never a charge for reading official documents when physically present at Finansinspektionen's premises. However, if you would like to have copies of official documents, we may charge a fee.

We charge a fee for paper copies if the document consists of ten pages or more. The first nine pages are free, the tenth page costs SEK 50, and every page thereafter costs SEK 2. We also charge a fee for postage.

Finansinspektionen is not obligated to release official documents in a digital format, but we can do so if we make the assessment that this method is appropriate and possible.

Appealing a decision

If you do not receive an entire document or parts of it because of confidentiality restrictions or some other reason, you may request a written decision from Finansinspektionen. The decision may be appealed to the Administrative Court of Appeal in Stockholm. Finansinspektionen must have received an appeal within three weeks from the point in time you received the decision. Finansinspektionen in turn will forward the appeal to the Administrative Court of Appeal in Stockholm.

 


Last reviewed: 2021-10-13