Public Access to Information and Secrecy Act
Public Access to Information and Secrecy Act (Offentlighets- och sekretesslagen [2009:400])
Chapter 42. The Offices of the Parliamentary Ombudsmen and the Chancellor of Justice, the Swedish Commission on Security and Integrity Protection
The Offices of the Parliamentary Ombudsmen and the Chancellor of Justice
Article 1
Secrecy shall apply to the Offices of the Parliamentary Ombudsmen and of the Chancellor of Justice in their supervision of public activities as well as to measures taken by the Office of the Chancellor of Justice to safeguard the rights of the State or provide the Government with advice or inquiries into legal issues solely to the extent laid down in articles 2–4. Secrecy does not apply in any case to a decision of the office of the Parliamentary Ombudsmen that involves adjudication of an issue.
Article 2
When, in the course of activities laid down in Article 1, a Parliamentary Ombudsman or the Chancellor of Justice receives information from a private individual,
- secrecy pursuant to the provisions of Chapter 15 shall apply only if it can be assumed that considerable harm would be caused to the Realm should the information be disclosed
- secrecy shall apply for protection of an individual’s private circumstances only if the information would have been subject secrecy provisions at the public authority to which the matter may be considered to pertain and it may be assumed that the individual or someone close to him or her would suffer considerable harm from disclosure of the information.
In addition to the provisions of the above paragraph, secrecy applies to information acquired from an individual in the course of the activities of the Office of the Chancellor of Justice to safeguard the rights of the state, if this information has been received in consequence of a legal dispute and it can be assumed that the position of the state as party to the dispute may be harmed by disclosure of the information.
Article 3
If a Parliamentary Ombudsman or the Chancellor of Justice has decided to start a preliminary criminal investigation, Articles 1- 4 of Chapter 18 and Articles 1, 2 and 6–10 of Chapter 35 shall apply to any action he or she may take in the capacity of a public prosecutor.
Article 4
If a Parliamentary Ombudsman or the Chancellor of Justice in the course of activities laid down in Article 1 receives information from another public authority that is subject to secrecy, this secrecy shall apply also within the office of the Parliamentary Ombudsmen or the Office of the Chancellor of Justice. However, if the information is contained in a document, produced in connection with these activities, secrecy shall apply within the Ombudsman’s Office or the Office of the Chancellor of Justice only if it can be assumed that some public or private interest would suffer extensive damage or considerable harm, through disclosure of the information.