Establishment of the transparency register

A transparency register will be established 

In accordance with the Government Programme, a law on the transparency register will be enacted after parliamentary preparation and consultation with civil society. The purpose of the act is to improve the transparency of decision-making and, through this, prevent inappropriate influences and strengthen public confidence. In the preparation of the transparency register legislation, the basic rights and freedoms of natural persons will be taken into account and special attention will be paid to the safety of their personal data.

It will be established whether it will be possible to include data on the outside employment and private interests of public officials. Government officials are required to submit notifications of their private interests and outside employment. If working hours are used for tasks of outside employment or if it can impact the impartiality of a government official, a permit to engage in outside employment will be required. The data submitted has not been recorded in a register.

It will furthermore be explored whether it will be possible to collect records of the parties invited to parliamentary committee hearings in a single transparency register. It could also be possible to append a list of the post-employment waiting period agreements as referred to in the State Civil Servants Act. It will also be established whether it will be possible to collect private interests data on a municipal level into a national transparency register.

• • • In December 2019, the Ministry of Justice appointed a cross-administrative working group to prepare and coordinate the National Democracy Programme 2025. A parliamentary working group tasked with preparing the establishment of the transparency register is due to be appointed in connection with the programme.
    • The transparency register is being prepared under the Ministry of Justice. The registration practice, matters related to the timeliness and correctness of data, data included in the register and termination of the operations are currently under preparation and discussion. A recommendation on the scope of application of the transparency register legislation, restrictions on the scope of application and registration obligation has been issued to the parliamentary steering group on the basis of the secretariat’s preparations. In addition, it is planned that hearing events addressing the autumn’s themes, in other words, the registration practice, register information, sanctions and implementation, will be arranged in the autumn.