How to complain
A complaint to the Parliamentary Ombudsmen (JO) can be made by anybody who believes that he or she or someone else has been treated wrongly or unjustly by a public authority or an official employed by the civil service or local government.
In other words it’s not necessary for a person to be a Swedish citizen or have reached a certain age to be able to make a complaint. Your complaint does not have to be about something that affects you personally.
What information should a complaint contain?
- The name and address of the person complaining
- A complaint should refer to the authority and/or the public official who has acted incorrectly
- A short description of the matter that the complaint regards
- When it happened
- The behaviour that is considered to be incorrect
- The reasons why the authority and/or the public official acted improperly
- Any registration or file number the authority may have assigned to the case
- Attach copies if possible of any documents that may show that the authority and/or the public official acted improperly
- A written complaint should be signed
Important things to bear in mind
Anonymous complaints are not investigated by the Parliamentary Ombudsmen.
A complaint should not in principle concern circumstances that date more than two years prior to the complaint (this is known as ”the two-year rule”).
A complaint to the Parliamentary Ombudsmen, and the documents sent with it, are in the public domain as soon as they reach the Parliamentary Ombudsmen. This means that anyone has the right to look at them unless they can be classified as confidential according to the Secrecy Act (details about the health of the complainant may, for instance, be classified as confidential).
If an ombudsman begins an inquiry into a complaint, the official concerned will be told who has made the complaint.
An ombudsman is not able to alter a judgment or a decision. If you are dissatisfied with a judgment or a decision you can, as a rule, appeal to a higher instance within the time stipulated in the judgment or decision.
Processing personal data
How the Parliamentary Ombudsmen are processing personal data