No. The Ombudsman cannot change or overturn court decisions, order them to be changed or order new court proceedings in a matter.

The Ombudsman is not an alternative to the statutory appeal system or a complementary means of appeal. Under section 3, subsection 3 of the Constitution of Finland, judicial powers in Finland are exercised by independent courts, with the Supreme Court and the Supreme Administrative Court as the highest instances. Under section 109, subsection 1 of the Constitution, the Parliamentary Ombudsman must supervise that the courts, among others, comply with the law and fulfil their obligations. The Ombudsman cannot intervene in how a court has exercised its discretion under the law, unless that discretion has been exceeded or misused.

No. The Ombudsman cannot change or overturn court decisions, order them to be changed or order new court proceedings in a matter.

The Ombudsman is not an alternative to the statutory appeal system or a complementary means of appeal. Under section 3, subsection 3 of the Constitution of Finland, judicial powers in Finland are exercised by independent courts, with the Supreme Court and the Supreme Administrative Court as the highest instances. Under section 109, subsection 1 of the Constitution, the Parliamentary Ombudsman must supervise that the courts, among others, comply with the law and fulfil their obligations. The Ombudsman cannot intervene in how a court has exercised its discretion under the law, unless that discretion has been exceeded or misused.

Unless there is a special reason to do so, the Ombudsman cannot investigate a matter over two years old.

You can choose for yourself whether to file a complaint with the Parliamentary Ombudsman or the Chancellor of Justice. Their tasks and powers are largely the same.

The Ombudsman and the Chancellor of Justice do not investigate the same matter at the same time. Instead, a complaint is investigated by whichever of the overseers it reaches first.

The competence of the supreme overseers of legality to oversee the authorities and private parties performing public duties is uniform. However, under the Act on the Division of Duties between the Chancellor of Justice and the Parliamentary Ombudsman, the Ombudsman and the Chancellor of Justice mainly delegate matters between themselves to the overseer of legality to whom the processing of the matter has been centralised in the Act. 

Overseeing the implementation of fundamental and human rights at the individual level and, in particular, overseeing the rights and treatment of vulnerable persons have been centralised to the Parliamentary Ombudsman. The oversight of legality by the Chancellor of Justice is directed at examining structural issues related to the implementation of fundamental and human rights in the development of public administration.

In practice, most of the matters covered by the delegation procedure concern ones centralised to the Ombudsman and are delegated from the Office of the Chancellor of Justice to the Office of the Ombudsman. If a matter is delegated, the complainant is always informed of it.

No. The overseers of legality do not oversee each other’s activities. If the Chancellor of Justice has already investigated a complaint, another complaint about the same matter will not be re-investigated by the Office of the Parliamentary Ombudsman without a special reason.

From the perspective of citizens’ protection under the law, it is essential that everyone can have their matter investigated by one overseer of legality or the other.

Use our electronic complaint form, or send a complaint by post or e-mail or bring it to the Office of the Parliamentary Ombudsman.

The Office is open from 9.00 to 15.00. The address is Arkadiankatu 3, 2nd floor.

Familiarisation with the details of a complaint will be made easier if the most important relevant documents are appended.

When making a complaint on behalf of another person, you should attach a power of attorney.

The Act on Publicity of Official Actions is observed when complaints are being investigated. The law requires that information concerning, for example, the complainant's state of health or social benefits must always be kept secret.

The name of the complainant becomes known to the subject of the complaint when the latter is given the opportunity to present his or her view.

Before a decision is reached in a matter, the publicity of the complaint documents is considered separately in each individual case.

The report of the decision on a complaint can be published on the Ombudsman's website if confidential information has been removed from it.

Enquiries about the progress of handling a complaint can be made to the Records Section of the Office of the Parliamentary Ombudsman, tel. +358 (0)9 432 3381, or to the referendary processing the complaint.

The target processing time for complaints is one year at the most. If the complaint does not lead to an actual investigation, the reply to the complaint is usually given within three months.

The Office of the Parliamentary Ombudsman does not provide general legal advice, answer questions at a general level or act as anyone’s agent. The Ombudsman investigates matters only on the basis of complaints. Complaints must be sufficiently specific and detailed to make it possible to investigate them.

Please note that the possibilities to examine the content of discussions with the authorities afterwards are rather limited in the written complaint procedure, as it is usually not possible to obtain a detailed account of their content. It is also possible that the expectations of the parties to the discussion or, for example, their different knowledge of the topic discussed may affect how they perceive the content of the discussion. Usually, the longer the time that has passed since the discussion the more difficult it is to investigate the matter.

You can discuss submitting a complaint in advance with the officials of the Office of the Parliamentary Ombudsman. They can be reached by calling Parliament’s switchboard, tel. +358 9 4321. Meeting in person is by appointment only.

The investigation of the complaint is not initiated until after a written complaint has been filed. The decision on the investigation of a complaint is made by the Parliamentary Ombudsman or a Deputy Ombudsman.

You can write a free-form complaint yourself or use the complaint form. You can also order the form from the Office of the Parliamentary Ombudsman, tel. 09 *4321.

There is no need to seek a lawyer's assistance.

Yes it can, but it must be written clearly enough to be legible.

There is no fee. The investigation of a complaint costs the complainant nothing.