Criticism of the Swedish Tax Agency for its processing of a request for the disclosure of documents

Summary of the decision: An administrator for a Chief Guardian Committee made an oral request to the Swedish Tax Agency for the disclosure of certain documents. In response, among other things the Swedish Tax Agency stated that the request must be submitted in writing and that the estimated processing time was approximately one month.

The Chief Parliamentary Ombudsman notes that the administrator made the request in their capacity as an employee of a public authority and that the request should therefore not have been assessed pursuant to the provisions of Chapter 2 of the Freedom of the Press Act (1949:105), but rather in accordance with regulations on the disclosure of documents to other public authorities.

According to the Chief Parliamentary Ombudsman, there are no legal grounds for requiring a public authority to submit a request for the disclosure of documents in writing. The Swedish Tax Agency is criticised for failing to process the oral request.

The Chief Parliamentary Ombudsman does not, however, see any impediment to the receiving authority contacting the requesting authority to inquire whether it would be possible to submit a written request, if this would make processing significantly more efficient. According to the Chief Parliamentary Ombudsman, given the obligation for cooperation between public authorities pursuant to the Administrative Procedure Act (2017:900), the requesting authority should usually be receptive to such a request.

Since generally speaking an authority’s request for the disclosure of documents should be promptly dealt with, the Chief Parliamentary Ombudsman is of the opinion that the processing time estimated by the Swedish Tax Agency would have been too long.