ADVISORY PANEL ON PUBLIC SECTOR

INFORMATION

Public Sector Information policy in Sweden

Report by APPSI Secretariat, May 2005

Background

Sweden joined the European Union (EU) in 1995, and its accession was seen
by many as a positive step towards open government. Sweden has a two
hundred year old tradition of freedom of information legislation and it was
anticipated that this would be likely to spur Europe's institutions towards
greater openness. But many Swedes feared the opposite: that they might be
required to conform to Europe's more secretive culture. In Sweden's entry
agreement there was a special declaration pertaining to the principle of public
access. It is emphasised that the rules embodying the principle of public
access are fundamental for `Sweden's constitutional, political and cultural
heritage'.

Sweden was one of the earliest states in Europe to legislate for openness and
transparency in government. In the 18th century, after over 40 years of mixed
experiences with Parliamentarism, public access to government documents
was one of the main issues covered in the Freedom of the Press Act of 1766.
It is viewed as a positive step against corruption and a move towards equal
treatment of citizens by government and as increasing the perceived
legitimacy of (local and central) government and politicians.

Right of Access to Government Information

The Swedish Freedom of Information Act (Tryckfrihetsförordningen) was

instituted as one of the country's four fundamental laws making up the
country's written constitution. It is covered in the Freedom of Press Act, which
granted public access to government documents. It is thus a fundamental
part of the Swedish Constitution. In Swedish this is known as
Offentlighetsprincipen (The Principle of Publicity). The Swedish Consutition
consists of four laws: The Instrument of Government (1974), The Act of
Succession (1810), The Freedom of the Press Act (1766) and the
Fundamental Law on Fredom of Expression (1991). The obligations are,
however, somewhat different to those in Britain in many respects. One
example of this is that requests can be made and information can be released
orally.

There are detailed rules in the second chapter of the Freedom of the Press
Act that define a public document and set rules on access (§ 12), the right to
obtain a copy and the principle for deciding the fee for such copies (§ 13,
which stipulates that the guiding principle should be marginal cost). At the
moment the Freedom of the Press Act (or the principle of transparency) only
give the citizen a right to obtain copies of public documents in paper format. A
proposed amendment to the 13th paragraph would make it possible for certain
documents to be released to the citizen in digital formats.

An English-language translation of the constitution can be found at

http://www.riksdagen.se/english/work/constitution.asp.

The framework on access rests on a constitutional pillar, aimed at giving the

citizen the possibility of checking and controlling how the public sector works.
The framework does not give the citizen a specific right to exploit the
“document” received from an agency on the basis of the principle of
transparency.

If a document contains material which is protected by copyright owned by the

state (a governmental agency is a section of the legal entity “the Crown”) a
municipality or a third party, who have sent a document to the agency for
some reason, the agency is obliged to give the document to the citizen as
prescribed in the Freedom of the Press Act. But the citizen has to respect the
copyright. If s/he wishes to exploit the protected the material, s/he has to build
an agreement with the owner of the rights to the material in question. There is
no specific framework on copyright for the public sector. The general
legislation on Intellectual Property Rights has to be used by the agencies on
central as well as local levels.

A study was commissioned at the time of negations with the EU on the

Directive 2003/98/EC on the Re-Use of Public Sector Information (the
Directive) and the analyses came to the conclusion that the Directive would
be easy to implement in Sweden due to Sweden’s existing culture of re-use of
Government information.

Access to information under the Swedish Freedom of Information Act is

usually free, not only to individuals, but also to companies. Information is,
however, only free in hard copy. Trading funds are the exception to this, but
the general rule is that information is open, available to anyone and free to
use and re-use. The Swedish Government are currently working on ways to
tackle the intellectual property rights owned by trading funds.
In Sweden, Government agencies have a close working relationship with the
information industry and actively sell information to them. Some agencies,
such as producers of maps, earn the large proportion of their revenue through
the sale of information. These agencies are very worried that the Directive will
change the control they exercise over information. Trading Funds have
assisted in the creation of information markets and there are information
brokers in many Swedish companies. The information market is very large
and many private information brokers have contracts with Government
agencies.

Licensing

The main challenge for the Swedish Government at present is licensing, and
this is something which is being investigated. The Government recognises
that one licence will not be suitable in all cases and are exploring the
possibility of using example licence types for individuals to develop. The
Swedish Government have noted the benefits of the UK licence and are
considering the merits of designing a similar system for use in Sweden.

The only aspect of licensing which might be considered regulated or at least is

affected by regulations is the issue of fees for grants of rights. For
governmental agencies there is the governmental ordnance (The ordnance on
fees 1992:191) which says that an agency is only allowed to sell goods and
services if Parliament or the government has given its permission. Licences
are also covered by this ordnance. The government normally gives the
agencies power to sell goods and services in the governmental ordnance for
the agency (Instruction; general regulation; for example dissemination of
geographical information) and in a “letter” (governmental decision) given to
every agencies on the economical prerequisites for the coming year. In the
letter for the National Land Survey it is prescribed that the fees for
dissemination of geographical information and cadastral (land) information
shall be calculated in such a way that the fees cover the costs of production of
the document (marginal cost) plus a contribution from the user of the data for
the maintenance of the systems used for storage and dissemination.

The Swedish Agency for Public Management (Statskontoret) is carrying out

an inquiry on behalf of the government for the issue of implementation of the
PSI-directive on the use of standard licenses by agencies.

The Directive has not been formally implemented in Sweden because the
Government feels that Sweden is already at an advanced stage in relation to
freedom of information and re-use of information. Much of the Directive has
already been covered, although in a rather fragmented manner. The culture
is very much of use and re-use of information.

There is currently no website dedicated to the Directive, but one is due to be

launched in late July/early August. There will be a PSI strategy implemented
in the next three to four months. This is due to there being little formal
implementation in Sweden, which will instead build upon systems and
processes already in place. The Swedish Government are confident that they
are already in a position to meet the requirements of the Directive.