Criticism of the Municipal Executive Committee in Skinnskatteberg Municipality for poor service in failing to inform an applicant that a request for copies of official documents covered an exceptionally large number of documents and was therefore likely to incur a very high fee

Summary of the decision: A reporter requested copies of official documents from a municipal executive committee. The request turned out to cover considerably more documents than the reporter had anticipated.

The Parliamentary Ombudsman notes that it is in the interests of both the applicant and the authority to avoid making unnecessary copies of documents, and that it would therefore have been reasonable to enter into a dialogue with the applicant. According to the Parliamentary Ombudsman, the initiation of such a dialogue falls within the authority’s service obligation pursuant to the Administrative Procedure Act (SFS 2017:900).

The Municipal Executive Committee is criticised for failing to inform the applicant in a clear manner that the request covered an exceptionally large number of documents and was therefore likely to incur a very high fee.