Interoperability Initiatives - Finland

Adopting a human-centric approach is one the core values of the Finland's new national digital strategy, the Digital Compass. According to the Digital Compass, digital services and the digitalisation of society must be implemented from a perspective that starts with human needs. Service planning and design decisions need to be human-centric instead of being focused on technology or administrative structures. In practice, human-centricity is emphasised, for example, in the work of the service design team of the Digital and Population Data Services Agency and in the programme planned by the Ministry of Finance in 2023 to promote from 2024 onwards life-event based digital public service development. Amendments to the Act on the Provision of Digital Services (306/2019) promotes equality in a digitising society and brings new services and actors within the scope of the accessibility requirements of the Act. Some service-specific additional requirements have also been added concerning the services within the scope of the Act. Amendments originate from the EU Accessibility Directive (EU) 2019/882, which has been enforced in Finland since 1 February 2023. The Suomi.fi services provide citizens, businesses and other organisations diverse options for improving their digital services and producing details of their services and their delivery to end users easily and reliably. The Suomi.fi service management is part of the National Architecture for Digital Services. 

In Finland, the efficiency, effectiveness, interoperability compliance, risks, and financial impacts of the IT solutions used or procured by the central government are evaluated by the Ministry of Finance. Th evaluation is based on the Act on Information Management in Public Administration (906/2019), which requires authorities to assess the risks associated with the use of their information systems and the impacts of changes in information systems on information management. The special legislation on the tasks of the authorities requires the authorities to assess the risks to the information systems used in their activities. Regulation concerning the budgeting of authorities requires an assessment of investments in information systems and risk management.

The Ministry of Justice publishes the Instructions for Legislative Drafting, which require to evaluate the implications of the proposal for information management and information security. An impact assessment of legislative drafting is seen as an important and integral part of the ministries' law drafting process. Impact assessments are guided by the Government's general Guidelines for Impact Assessment in Law Drafting. The general guidelines help law drafters plan impact assessments, identify and assess impacts and, where necessary, seek further information and the ministries' thematic guidelines supplementing it. The Act on Information Management in Public Administration (906/2019) requires that the ministry in charge of drafting shall draw up the assessment of the changes in information management when the provisions being prepared have an impact on datasets and information systems. The ministry shall also assess the impacts of the planned provisions on the publicity and secrecy of documents. When carrying out an impact assessment, law drafters may utilise their ministries' experts in impact assessment, engage in inter-sectoral cooperation and consult stakeholders and experts. The results of an impact assessment and its background are presented in a concise form in the government proposal to be drawn up of the proposed legislation. The independent and autonomous Council of Regulatory Impact Analysis issues statements on the quality of impact assessments in draft government proposals.

Legislation forms the basic structures for the interoperability governance and steering in public administration. The Ministry of Finance's task is to steer the interoperability of shared data resources in public administration in general, according to the Act on Information Management in Public Administration (906/2019). To carry out this task and in order to promote the interoperability between shared data resources and information systems, the Ministry maintains general policies for the development of information management. Each of the ministries must maintain the general policies for its own sector in order to promote the interoperability of shared information resources and information systems. These administrative tasks and the work carried out in it implements the EIF's conceptual model for integrated public services. Individual obligations to implement different principles of interoperability for information exchange between different information systems are laid down in different sector legislation. According to the Act, when using a technical interface, such as an API, for the exchange of information between public administration organisations' information systems, the authority supplying the data is responsible for both the description of the data structure used and maintaining the description. When planning data transfer between several authorities, the ministry responsible for the sector is responsible for the description of the data structure and maintaining it. In order to implement the objectives of the Act to promote interoperability, the Ministry of Finance must organise collaboration structures in public administration for the coordination of information management and the provision of IT services between authorities operating in government agencies and public bodies and municipal authorities.