SWEDEN | Office of the Parliamentary Ombudsmen publishes English summary of Annual Report 2020-21

The office of the Parliamentary Ombudsmen was established in Sweden in 1809 as part of a new constitution adopted to establish an independent institution to make sure that public authorities obeyed the laws. Since then more than two centuries have passed and the work of the Parliamentary Ombudsmen is still based on the same principles.

During the year, the institution’s work was shaped by the ongoing corona pandemic. For example, the Parliamentary Ombudsmen only initiated eleven inspections during the financial year, compared with 51 during the preceding year. The inspections that were carried out were mainly performed remotely or under adapted forms with, inter alia, introductory and concluding dialogues via video link.

The Parliamentary Ombudsmen’s OPCAT activities were affected by the pandemic more than the other activities. Furthermore, the influx of cases continued to be affected by the pandemic to some extent and the Parliamentary Ombudsmen responded to a number of legislative consultations related to the pandemic with short, and in some cases very short, deadlines.

During the financial year, almost 10,300 complaint cases were closed, which is about 900 more than in the previous year. Around 700 of these are estimated to have been wholly or partly related to the corona pandemic.

The Annual Report 2020-21 is available on the website of the Parliamentary Ombudsmen.

Source: Office of the Parliamentary Ombudsmen, Sweden