If you are considering making a complaint, you can discuss the matter beforehand with the officials at the Office. To contact them, please contact the Parliamentary switchboard on +358 9 4321. To meet them in person, you must make an appointment.

The officials of the Office cannot predict the outcome of the complaint. The investigation of the complaint will not begin until the investigation of a written complaint has been initiated.

If you print or save your electronic complaint after submitting it, the complaint file will contain information about when the Turvaviesti service received your complaint.

This is not an official acknowledgment of receipt from the authority, but an automatic timestamp generated by the system.

The official acknowledgment of receipt is sent only once the complaint has reached the Office of the Parliamentary Ombudsman’s registry via the Turvaviesti service. The acknowledgment will be sent to you from the address oikeusasiamies@eduskunta.fi.

Decisions on complaints are made by the Parliamentary Ombudsman or the Deputy-Ombudsman.

Before filing a complaint, it is often advisable to get in direct contact with the authority that you feel has acted unlawfully. That in itself can sometimes lead to a swift resolution of the problem.

For example, the following are public authorities

• state agencies and institutions
• wellbeing services counties
• municipal bodies, such as a municipal council or a municipal board
• courts of law

Public officials include the following

• police officers
• bailiffs (distraint enforcement officers)
• social workers
• doctors at health centres
• municipal managers
• elementary school teachers
• building inspectors
• judges

You can also complaint to the Parliamentary Ombudsman about institutions that perform public duties, such as unemployment funds and insurance institutions. They pay compensation, benefits and pensions to people. If a municipality buys services from a company, this company is also performing public tasks. A children’s home may be a company of this kind.

By contrast, the Ombudsman’s oversight does not include

• the Parliament as a legislative body nor its Members
• Chancellor of Justice of the Government
• foreign authorities
• international organisations
• non-profit associations
• banks, other businesses, unless they are performing a public duty
• housing companies
• individual entrepreneurs, such as lawyers or doctors in private practice
• private individuals