Decision on fees for services provided by the Office of the Parliamentary Ombudsman

Decision 19.11.2024
Decision no: EOAK/308/2024

Reference: Section 10 of the Act on Criteria for Charges Payable to the State (150/1992) and section 34 of the Act on the Openness of Government Activities (621/1999)

ISSUE: Decision on fees for services provided by the Office of the Parliamentary Ombudsman

Section 1 Services with no fee

No fee is charged for issuing a document under the general right of access to information stipulated in section 9 of the Act on the Openness of Government Activities (access to information from a public document) and under parties’ right of access to information stipulated in section 11 of said Act when:

  1. the Office of the Parliamentary Ombudsman issues or sends its decision or inspection record related to the oversight of legality to a party or a supervised entity for the first time;
  2. the matter concerns decisions made under the Act on the Openness of Government Activities and a document that is issued without an order, and sending such documents;
  3. information on the document is provided orally;
  4. the document is handed out as such at the Office of the Parliamentary Ombudsman for the purpose of reading or copying it;
  5. a public electronically stored document is sent by electronic means to the person requesting the information;
  6. an electronically stored document is sent by electronic means to a party concerned;
  7. issuing the requested document falls within the scope of the Office’s obligation to provide advice, consultation or information.

A fee is also not charged when confidential, electronically stored documents are sent electronically to a person requesting the information and the documents can be identified and located by means of the Office’s document classification, the document identifier or register search functions, and in which the confidential parts can be easily removed (normal document request where the requested information is electronic and sent electronically).

A fee is also not charged from researchers who have been granted a research permit for copies or printouts delivered to them, provided that the number of sheets does not exceed 100 pages. A fee referred to in section 2, subsection 1 may be charged for pages that are in excess of this number.

However, in the cases referred to in subsection 1, paragraphs 3–6 above, a fee corresponding to the costs incurred in retrieving the information is charged when the requested document is one that cannot be identified or found by means of the Office’s document classification, document identifier or register search functions. The fee is charged in accordance with section 2, subsection 2.

According to Article 15 of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679, data subjects have the right of access to their data. Information provided to data subjects under Articles 13 and 14 of the GDPR and all information and measures based on Articles 15 to 22 and 34 of the GDPR are delivered free of charge.

Section 2 Services subject to a fee

  1. Requesting information as copies or printouts on documents that can be identified and located by means of the Office’s document classification, the document identifier or register search functions, and that are wholly public or from which confidential parts can be easily removed (normal document request), is subject to a fee of 
    1. EUR 0,70 per page for a black-and-white copy or printout sized A4, and
    2. EUR 1,40 per page for a copy or printout sized A3 and for a colour copy or printout;
  2. When requesting information on documents that cannot be identi-fied and located with the Office’s document classification, the doc-ument identifier or register search functions, or where confidential parts cannot be easily removed (request for documents requir-ing special measures), the following fee is charged for processing the document request:
    1. If the time spent processing the document request is less than one hour in total, the fee charged for the documents is EUR 40.
    2. If the processing time exceeds one hour of work, the fee is charged at the Office’s cost price of EUR 80 per hour.

If the information is provided as a copy or printout or on an external data transfer device, a fee in accordance with section 2, subsec-tion 1 or 3 is charged in addition.

  1. If information is delivered on a CD, DVD or some similar external electronic device, a fee of EUR 23 is charged for each CD, DVD or external electronic device.
  2. If requests submitted by a data subject on the basis of the GDPR are manifestly unfounded or unreasonable, in particular in cases where they are submitted repeatedly, the data controller may either charge a reasonable fee, taking into account the administrative costs of submitting the data or messages or carrying out the re-quested action, or refuse to carry out the requested action. In such cases, the controller must demonstrate the manifestly unfounded or unreasonable nature of the request. The fee is charged in ac-cordance with section 2, subsection 2, paragraph 1(a) or (b) and paragraph 2.
  3. For materials produced on a discretionary basis upon request, such as statistics, reports and research services, a fee is charged in accordance with the criteria laid down in section 2, paragraphs 1–3 regardless of whether the production of the material requires the special measures referred to in paragraph 2.
  4. Besides the general right of access to information and parties’ right of access to information, the other cases of information provision referred to in section 34, subsection 6 of the Act on the Openness of Government Activities are subject to a fee that is charged on a case-by-case basis in accordance with the criteria laid down in sec-tions 1 and 2 of this decision.
  5. A fee is charged for sending documents by post in accordance with the postal fees that are valid at the time.

Documents can be retrieved from the Office of the Parliamentary Ombudsman without a postal fee.

Section 3 Collection of the fee

In accordance with the principles of good governance, a person submitting a document request subject to a fee must be advised and consulted before the document request is fulfilled. The person submitting the document request is informed of the estimated working hours and the total invoiced fee.

As a rule, services subject to a fee must be paid in advance by credit transfer. Documents subject to a fee can also be sent by post. If the number of documents is small, the payment can be ordered to be made with a separate invoice that will be sent later, or the fee can be waived if there is a specific reason for doing so.

The fee is charged even if the person requesting the information cancels a service subject to a fee after the measures related to the fulfilment of the service have been carried out.

Section 4 Appeals

A revised decision can be requested against a fee imposed under this decision from the Ombudsman within six months of the imposition of the fee.

The decision on a claim for a revised decision may be appealed to the Helsinki Administrative Court as provided in the Administrative Procedure Act (808/2019). However, the decision of the Administrative Court may not be appealed.

The invoice sent to the party liable for payment is appended with instructions for claiming a revised decision and submitting an appeal.

Section 5 Entry into force

This decision shall enter into force on 20 November 2024.

This decision repeals the Parliamentary Ombudsman’s decision of 28 November 2005 on the fees payable for services by the Office of the Parliamentary Ombudsman (3739/1/05).

Parliamentary Ombudsman Petri Jääskeläinen

Administrative Assessor Astrid Geisor-Goman