Response to interpellation 2022/23:273 on census
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
1 M considers that high quality in the population register is a prerequisite for a well-functioning society and that the state must strengthen the control 1. 2 M argues that a census is a process to obtain an accurate picture of who is in Sweden 2. 2 M argues that the situation must be brought under control because it is not known how many are here or if they live at the correct address 2. 2 M argues that immigration has created problems with the population register 2. 3 M argues that the previous Social Democratic government did not do enough and that a large-scale census is required 3. 3 M argues that the census is an important foundation for a welfare society 4. S considers that it is not a census that has been decided upon, but that the Social Democrats' policy is being continued.
Written by AI in advance and may contain errors. The numbers lead to the speech a statement builds on; check against the text below.
Finansministern Elisabeth Svantesson (M)
Mr. Speaker! Sofie Eriksson has asked me how the government defines the concept of census, when the census starts and should be completed, how the census is to be carried out and what it is estimated to cost.
A high quality in the population register is a prerequisite for a well-functioning society, and the information on who is residing in Sweden needs to be correct. Therefore, it is important that the state strengthens the control over the population register.
In the 2023 budget bill, the government's initiative for an improved population registration through a census was presented, and Skatteverket's appropriation was increased by a total of 500 million kronor up to and including 2026.
The government is acting broadly in the issue of improving the population register through a census. The initiative consists of several measures that together contribute to us obtaining better knowledge about occurrences and risks, as well as which groups of people exist and operate in Sweden with or without permits.
Skatteverket's targeted controls in areas where the risk of incorrect population registration is assessed to be high are an important part of this large-scale initiative. Skatteverket has already begun the implementation by increasing both the number of inspection visits and the preventive and knowledge-enhancing measures. New rules and tools also mean that Skatteverket is changing its way of working.
On March 30, 2023, the government also decided to task the Swedish Tax Agency (Skatteverket) with proposing methods to produce a national situation report and submitting proposals on what additional measures can be included in the initiative. The Swedish Tax Agency shall describe how the control of coordination numbers can be increased and highlight the conditions for, for example, introducing some form of population registration declaration.
During the implementation, the Swedish Tax Agency shall cooperate with the state authorities and other actors that the Swedish Tax Agency considers necessary. For example, the Swedish Tax Agency cannot perform the work of producing a national situation report individually; it must be done in cooperation with others. Experience and sources of information regarding relevant circles of persons can, for example, be found at the Swedish Migration Agency, which is responsible for issues concerning, among others, residence permits, work permits and repatriation, as well as with the Swedish Police Authority, which, among other things, performs internal foreign national control and executes decisions on rejection or deportation. Also, Statistics Sweden, which is responsible for population statistics, may need to contribute to the work.
I look forward to the report of the assignment which is to be submitted by September 4, 2023, at the latest. It will be an important basis for planning and implementation during the mandate period.
Sofie Eriksson (S)
Mr. Speaker! I thank the Minister for Finance for the answer.
There must be order and clarity regarding who lives in Sweden. We must have control over where people live when we are going to plan our societies. It is also about security for our welfare system.
In this context, it must be remembered that Sweden has one of the best and strongest population registration systems in the world, but even we, as mentioned, have problems. It occurs that people register at the wrong place to access payments they are not entitled to, and criminals get away with and commit crimes by using incorrect population registration.
We agree on this problem description. Therefore, the Social Democratic-led government implemented a change of course to strengthen control and improve the quality of the population register. A long series of measures were put in place. Among others, Skatteverket received increased funding and more tools to be able to detect, investigate, and rectify errors in the population register. They were given the opportunity to de-register false identities, conduct home visits, and verify people's residence. The system of coordination numbers has been significantly strengthened, and several hundred thousand incorrect ones have been removed. The population register offense, which the Alliance government abolished, we have reintroduced.
These measures were met with rather cool reactions from the right. It was almost said that if a census were not carried out, society would collapse. A census is, simply described, a snapshot. Previously, forms had been sent home for households to fill out, but during the 90s, one moved away from that method and focused instead on having better ongoing population registers. A snapshot risks becoming irrelevant the day after it has been published. A register-based census was also carried out as recently as 2021.
Still, we hear these chest-thumping tones from the right: If a large-scale, national census is not conducted, society will probably implode.
Therefore, it was interesting to listen to the government's and SD's press conference regarding the population census. What would they come up with? There was talk of a paradigm shift – a word that has started to become a bit inflated. Demography professor Gunnar Andersson said this after the government's press conference: "It is not a population census even if one calls it that. Possibly one can say that it is an expansion of the system with the population registration and an attempt to find persons who are not included in the registered population through random spot checks."
Skatteverket can already perform home visits. The Finance Minister was even involved in one himself. We absolutely have no problem with that you want to do more of those. But we have a problem with that in an election campaign you promise a lot of things and then fiddle a bit with the terms and pretend that you are delivering.
So what is it that we are talking about? Yes, it is to continue with the Social Democratic government's policy to strengthen the control and improve the quality of the population registers. That is good. But the question is how the government defines the concept of census.
Peder Björk (S)
Mr. Speaker! There seems to be a broad consensus in politics that we need to have order and clarity in the Swedish population registration. It was also one of the reasons why the Social Democratic government took a number of initiatives and, unlike previous bourgeois governments, also reintroduced the crime of population registration fraud.
Now the current government wants to proceed with further measures. Not least, they want to give Skatteverket up to half a billion more to strengthen this work. Good so. But the inaccuracies in the population register do not exist in a vacuum, but the problems with the population register are a symptom of something. They are a symptom that there are people living in vulnerability, that there are too few homes in our country, and that people are being exploited on the labor market.
Mr. Speaker! We have heard a great deal from the government about wanting to conduct a census. But my question to the Minister for Finance is whether the government is also prepared to address and invest in rectifying the symptoms that lead to us having problems with the population registration in Sweden.
Finansministern Elisabeth Svantesson (M)
Mr. Speaker! It seems as if the interpellator means that we define the concept of population registration in different ways. I truly believe that. Of course, a census is not a snapshot. How could it be a snapshot when we do not know who is here in the country?
What we have discovered and have driven for several years, and which has been very important for me, is that we must get a real picture of who is in Sweden and how many we are. During these weeks, there are many tourists here, but that is not what we are talking about. How many are there who live in Sweden? Where does one live? Does one live at the address where one is registered? Is one registered at all? We must have control over who is here and know it, because unfortunately, we do not know that.
It may be that the interpellator and I do not share the same view on the concept of a census, but for us and the government, it is about knowing who is here and whether one lives at the address they are registered at or lives in another country. The interpellator refers to a visit I made together with employees from Skatteverket in Skåne where it was precisely such a case where two people who were registered here were in another country. How is one to find out that if one does not have an increase in, for example, control visits?
It is also about Skatteverket, together with Migrationsverket and other parties, getting a better picture. That is why we are providing additional resources and assignments to Skatteverket – to get better control. We have not had that control in Sweden, Mr. Speaker.
I believe fundamentally that the interpellator and other debaters here – we have debated this before – agree on that. If our view on the concept of the census differs, so be it. For me, the census is a framework of various measures to be carried out over a period of time. It is a process. It will need to continue to be carried out so that we always know how many people are living in and are in Sweden at different times. But we cannot get a snapshot if we do not first know what the problems are.
Mr. Speaker! We see that the problems are much of what the interpellator has already enumerated. There are those who live and work in Sweden who should not be here, but right now we do not even know how many they are. Overall, we need to get control of the situation, get a good picture, and then, based on that, implement the right measures.
A brief answer to Member Peder Björk's question is that it is about us seeing that immigration has been very large for many years, especially since 2015 and for some years forward. It also created problems regarding the population count: Who is in Sweden, is one registered in the population register, is one allowed to be here? Migrationsverket, Skatteverket and other authorities must work together to get a good picture so that we really know and can carry out this population count in a process – so that we get a better picture during this parliamentary term than we have had for very many years. This is the entire purpose of investing money and ensuring that Skatteverket employs more people and cooperates with other authorities on this in a way that has not been done previously.
A census is not just a snapshot, but to get a snapshot one must first know. How can we get a snapshot if our data and our registers are incorrect?
Sofie Eriksson (S)
Mr. Speaker! I thank the Minister for Finance for this second contribution.
It is interesting that this thing with concepts, that is, doesn't play any role. One can go out in an election and promise a few different things, and then afterwards one can say "I mean it this way," while everyone else means that there is a generally accepted established definition, for example that a census is a snapshot.
One must remember how the notes sounded. Exactly what the Finance Minister is describing now regarding strengthened control, improved quality in the registers, and the possibility of making home visits is work that our Social Democratic government initiated and which initiated the change of course—but that work was said to be completely rubbish! The only thing that was worth anything was a large-scale national census. Then one imagines that it would be something other than the work we initiated. But now, after the election, it turns out that that wasn't so bad after all. It is positive that one has come to one's senses.
I would also like to congratulate the Minister for Finance on a well-executed negotiation. The Sweden Democrats have for years talked about a large-scale national census where practically every door in Sweden would be knocked on by a physical person. One would count toothbrushes and sort things out. People talked about resetting the system, starting over and clearing out. In this way, it was believed that the shadow society would be completely eradicated. The experts agree – we received a report from ESO – that this would not be a particularly successful method.
What the government and SD presented during the spring, under the heading Folkräkning, is, as said, in fact a continuation of the Social Democrats' policy. That is good. It is positive that the government has now abandoned its castles in the air and come to its senses. But what do the Sweden Democrats actually think about this? They did envision a door-knocking campaign that Jehovah's Witnesses or the Social Democratic Workers' Party can only dream of. It is truly skillful of the Finance Minister to bring this home. How did she manage to trick the Sweden Democrats into believing that this would become a paradigm shift?
Peder Björk (S)
Mr. Speaker! I appreciate that the Minister for Finance is straight and clear in his answer to my question on whether one is prepared to address the causes of our problems with the population registration. Now we received a clear message here in the chamber: For the Sweden Democrat-led government, it is immigration that they want to target with a correct population registration. It is immigration that they want to address with a correct population registration.
But that is not the big problem in this context, Mr. Speaker. That is not why we have problems with people living in social vulnerability or people being exploited in the labor market or that we have too little housing construction. If the government really wanted to address the reasons why we have problems with the population register, they should ensure that they invest in housing construction and educational initiatives, seriously tackle the issue of crime in the working life and, above all, ensure that they invest in the welfare in our regions and municipalities.
But the Sweden Democrat-led government does exactly the opposite. They are withdrawing the investment support for housing, and now we see how housing construction plunges. They are not injecting money into welfare. Now municipalities and regions all over the country are screaming for more resources because they simply cannot afford to invest in welfare. These are the things that the government should be tackling, but for this government, it is immigration that they should handle with better population registration instead of investing in welfare.
Finansministern Elisabeth Svantesson (M)
Mr. Speaker! It is interesting that when the arguments run out, one wants to distort and probably deliberately misunderstand. I have no problem with that. What I have a problem with is that we do not have control over who is in Sweden, that we do not know how many are here and that there are so many who live in the wrong place. One might even have moved to Iraq and is receiving housing allowance or other benefits from Sweden. That is what I have a problem with.
We can gladly have this debate several times. I think much of what the Social Democrats did in this area was good. I have never said anything else. But I do not think it was enough. I noted that a cat count was pushed through here at the end of the last parliamentary term. That is okay; we need to know which cats are here, and they must be registered. But a census, the Social Democrats do not want to have.
I know that the interpellor thinks the word here is most important. But a census is a snapshot once you know, once you have first completed this process so that you really know that you have the correct data and know who is here. That is what this is about.
We can have a discussion about concepts all day this Friday, but for me, the most important thing is that the government acts. Both the Sverigedemokraterna and the government agree that we are to do many different things, but we shall also knock on many more doors.
Speaking of toothbrushes, it is something that the Swedish Tax Agency themselves assess when they come to an apartment. It could be a person who is registered there even though there are ten toothbrushes. It is one of many tools, just to take an example.
We want order and clarity. Then resources are needed, cooperation between authorities is needed, and more tools are needed. During this mandate period, we shall know who is here and how many of us there are. It is a large-scale census, but it does not happen in a day.
Sofie Eriksson (S)
Mr. Speaker and the Minister for Finance! I can only briefly state that this is, of course, an important issue. That is why I submitted the interpellation.
I think it is important with terminology. We have talked back and forth about this now, but I feel that I am not quite getting through. It is not a census that has been decided upon, but one continues with the Social Democrats' policy. It is positive. It is good to strengthen the control and quality in the registers so that we get better ongoing monitoring of where people live.
It is important that it does not appear in an election campaign that one promises things and then does not keep them. "Folkräkning" (census) seems to have been a word that has been cobbled together in the offices and that people have thought fits well on posters and in pamphlets – a symbolic issue.
Now I stand here and reflect on these doors, these people, and this shadow society that we are talking about. The question is what the government intends to do with the information one receives when one has opened a door and seen the injustices with one's own eyes. The government has removed the housing policy. The government stands and watches while municipalities are forced to cut back on social services and schools. The government has abolished the investment support and shut down the investigations into a state-owned real estate company and on social dumping.
How should we solve overcrowding, segregation, work-related crime, vulnerability, and poverty, which are the things that will face us? The only thing we hear from the right regarding these matters is that poor mothers should know shame and buy oatmeal. It is good that more information can be obtained through strengthened population registration and outreach activities, but the question is what the government will do with the class society that reveals itself.
Finansministern Elisabeth Svantesson (M)
Mr. Speaker! I thank the interpellor for an important discussion and debate. I would gladly have a debate at another occasion with more minutes on what we should do so that people who have ended up in exclusion can get jobs again and so that children can see their parents go to work.
Population registration is not just about certain vulnerable areas; a census will take place where there is a risk of inaccuracies, also in well-off areas. One might no longer live there, or one says that one lives in another country for many years. Just so I get this said. All types of population registration errors shall, of course, be corrected and punished, if crimes have been committed.
But it is about more. It is also, as I have mentioned earlier, about the fact that we need to get control and know who is here. It is an important foundation for a welfare society.
Oh no, I do not think the Social Democratic government did enough. That is why we four parties now want to do significantly more. The census will be important to capture people who are in a vulnerable position and who may be in Sweden because others have forced them and who are abused and exploited on the Swedish labor market. It is a good tool to get a better picture and to be able to help and support and get order on what is not working.
Thank you for the interpellation and the debate!
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.