Response to interpellation 2024/25:676 on the Coast Guard's competence supply
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
M considers the Coast Guard to be an important agency in a development phase where the government has increased the personnel strength through resource supplements and lowered prerequisite requirements 1 2. M argues that capability is built through personnel, ships, and technical aids 3, and that they want to intensify maritime situational awareness and cooperation with the Armed Forces while simultaneously maintaining the capability within environmental rescue 4. M is open to investigating reports on administrative burden 4. S questions when the capability increase will be in place and expresses concern that environmental monitoring is being deprioritized 5 6. S argues that the current number of employees is not sufficient to man the technically advanced ships 7.
Written by AI in advance and may contain errors. The numbers lead to the speech a statement builds on; check against the text below.
Statsrådet Carl-Oskar Bohlin (M)
Madam Speaker! Hanna Westerén has asked me what measures are being taken to ensure the highest possible operational capability at the Coast Guard and what measures are being taken so that as many as possible remain coast guard officers and so that more people apply to the agency.
The Coast Guard is an important authority with the task of conducting maritime surveillance and performing sea rescue services. The deteriorated security situation in the surrounding area also places higher demands on the authority to have an increased capability within total defense. The Coast Guard is now in a development phase where investments are being made for a strengthened capability at sea.
The question of the Coast Guard's operational capability is very important, which is also shown in the investments the government has made. The Coast Guard's appropriations have gradually increased in recent years, from 1.48 billion kronor in 2023 to 1.89 billion in 2025. The additions have, among other things, made it possible for the agency to conduct double classes for new coast guard officers during 2023 and 2024. In addition, in this year's spring budget amendment, the government has proposed that the Coast Guard be provided with an additional 50 million kronor for the current year for the purpose of further increasing its operational capability.
The government has, through additional resources, thus given the authority better conditions for capacity growth, and several development projects are ongoing within the authority. At the same time, it is inevitable that there is a certain delay before the measures show the desired increase in capacity.
The Coast Guard has since 2022 gone from 881 employees to 1,023 employees, an increase of 142 people. Since the aspirant training reopened in 2021, 68 new coast guard officers have been appointed, and at this moment, a further 85 are being trained. These officials are a very welcome addition to the staffing of the agency's ships and aircraft.
Securing the Coast Guard's operational capability is also about creating the conditions to be in the right place at the right time. Through a good maritime situational awareness and a developed intelligence activity and analytical capacity, the authority can prioritize resources to where they are needed most.
The Government follows the agency's development closely, and when it comes to what measures have been taken so that more people will apply to the agency while as many as possible remain coast guard officers, I would like to mention a few examples.
During 2023, the requirements for being an eligible applicant for the Coast Guard's basic training were changed. This resulted in a larger recruitment base, and during the same year, there were 1,354 applicants for 24 training positions. Furthermore, some recruitment focus has been placed on the re-employment of former Coast Guard officers, and finally, targeted recruitment and information efforts in social media, at fairs, and in schools have been carried out in order to increase the visibility of the profession.
The Coast Guard offers more career paths and invests in leadership and employee engagement and skills development to retain staff. In this context, it is worth mentioning that in 2024, for the second year in a row, the Coast Guard was the Swedish agency with the highest employer index, according to the analysis company Verians' survey. This indicates a good reputation and employees who are good ambassadors.
Securing a stable and long-term personnel supply is a strategic priority for the Coast Guard. I share the view that this is an issue of great importance both for Swedish maritime safety and for civil preparedness.
Hanna Westerén (S)
Madam Speaker! I thank Carl-Oskar Bohlin for the answer.
It is true that I have asked questions about how the government ensures the highest possible operational capability for the Coast Guard. I may be a little extra interested because I represent the Gotland constituency. Gotland is, due to its location in the middle of the Baltic Sea, the strategic jewel in terms of security policy. For those of us who live and work on Gotland, it is therefore of decisive importance that both the environmental monitoring and the rescue operations and other operations for the total defense that the Coast Guard performs function optimally.
The Minister for Civil Defence has clearly accounted for both how resources have been secured and for some prerequisites moving forward, which is excellent. He also says that there is a certain delay before the measures show the desired increase in capability, and I have respect for that given that the security policy situation has intensified and looks like it could intensify further. The question follows, however: When does the Minister judge that we can expect the desired increase in capability to be in place?
I also congratulate and welcome those who have chosen to become coast guard officers, for they perform an incredibly important mission for Sweden.
There is, therefore, much we agree on, including the respect we shall have for the Coast Guard's knowledge when it comes to determining how to prioritize resources to where they are needed most.
Carl-Oskar Bohlin also mentions more career paths, leadership and staff roles, and skills development, which is absolutely excellent. However, there are several signals from the Coast Guard that the leadership roles entail a large administrative burden, which means less time on ships and more time in the office. Does the Minister share the view that it is a challenge to ensure a good balance between the administrative function and the opportunity to spend time on ships?
I share the view that the Coast Guard is a good employer. But once again, there are signals that one is sometimes faced with difficult trade-offs at the Coast Guard: namely, that the ships must suffice for both environmental monitoring and rescue operations. The availability of ships is not fully met by the number of employees.
How does Carl-Oskar Bohlin view the important, diversified task that the Coast Guard has in this challenging time? Does one have the resources and a reasonable sense of time regarding when one is at a desired capability level and a reasonable distribution between environmental monitoring and the other work tasks?
Statsrådet Carl-Oskar Bohlin (M)
Madam Speaker! I actually have the pleasure of telling that as recently as earlier today, I made a study visit to two of the Coast Guard's sea-going units together with the EU Commissioner for Preparedness. I am struck, as always when I visit the Coast Guard, by what fantastic and dedicated employees there are in the agency. It is a joy to see, and it is an honor to be able to witness a small part of their everyday lives. It is an opportunity to try to acknowledge them for the important work they do to strengthen Sweden's security in various ways, all year round, around the clock, in all types of weather. It is truly worthy of praise.
I hope that the government's view that the agency is particularly important is manifested in the special resource supplements provided in both the ordinary budget bill and as late as in the autumn budget for handling the increasing uncertainty prevailing in the Baltic Sea. It is about an enhanced capacity to handle hybrid events and to conduct maritime surveillance on the water surface through maritime imagery and below the water surface.
Let me answer Hanna Westerén's question by clearly stating that the capacity has already increased compared to when the government took office. Just as I mentioned, there are therefore 143 additional employees in the agency compared to 2022. The big question is, of course, whether it would have been better if the investments had been made earlier under the previous government. The answer is, of course, yes to the question, but it is better that they are being made now than that they are not being made at all.
As in all contexts where a special, unique competence is needed, it takes time from the moment one decides to allocate more resources until that competence is fully trained and operational in the agency. We will continue to see this capacity growth in the future. The prior knowledge requirements have now been lowered to such an extent that one now gets the entire training as a bonus. No qualification is required at the start; instead, it is included in the training. This means that more people can apply, the intake can be broadened, and the number of classes can be doubled. This is naturally good because it will mean that the capacity continues to increase moving forward.
When will we be finished with this? There is no answer to that question because this is work towards a moving target. Unfortunately, we have seen the security situation deteriorate, and that is reflected in the environment the Coast Guard encounters.
I will try to manage to answer one more question, namely whether I have encountered the image of people being burdened by unnecessary administration. No, I have personally not encountered that image when I have met coast guard officers, but I am completely open to taking part in that image if it exists. The directives to the agency management are, of course, to work towards as high a capacity as possible. That naturally includes that employees should not be affected by unnecessary bureaucracy in the performance of their duties.
Hanna Westerén (S)
Madam Speaker! I congratulate Carl-Oskar Bohlin on his visit to the operation. I agree that it is incredibly interesting to take part in the everyday lives of various skilled professionals. I also share the view that they are immensely dedicated employees, and the very purpose of the interpellation is that we should retain them, ensure that there are more of them, and that they have the conditions and mandate to truly carry out their incredibly important mission.
I want to return to what I touched upon in my opening remarks, namely the diversified mandate. We must be careful and consider the incredibly broad mandate that the Coast Guard has. It is partly shaped by the fact that I come from Gotland, where we have had disturbances in the underwater infrastructure in our vicinity. The Coast Guard must be able to handle disturbances in the underwater infrastructure and at the same time be prepared to handle an oil spill or something equivalent. There come signals that there is a risk that one will have to sacrifice one of the two. The risk I am getting is that in some parts it will be the environmental monitoring, and that is a sacrifice that I believe we really cannot afford. Part of how we manage our total defense is that we also ensure that we continue to have a healthy Baltic Sea.
It is excellent with the increased capacity. But if I have understood correctly, many of the incredibly skilled coast guard officers, whom we have both met, are about to retire. Then a steady influx of new employees is required to take their place. I am a bit unclear on exactly how strong the capacity increase that Carl-Oskar Bohlin refers to is. I share the picture that the capacity is increasing, but perhaps not quite as much as is depicted here. It is impossible to answer the question of when the capacity has increased to a sufficient degree. I understand that, but the government has nevertheless allocated funds for it to bear fruit. It would still be interesting to see when parts of what is now described in the answer will actually yield the effect that is suggested.
I want once again to return to the diversified mission, regarding total defense, that is to say, handling environmental monitoring, rescue operations and other missions in the total defense. That balance must be maintained and feel reasonable.
Prerequisites and mandate were the basis for the interpellation. I have had several meetings with the Coast Guard, and I have met representatives from the trade union Tull-Kust. They provide a picture of an agency that functions well in many respects, just as Carl-Oskar Bohlin himself has said. But they feel an uncertainty regarding the administrative burden on the management functions and the tug-of-war between having enough people on the ships and being sufficient for all the missions that arrive at the Coast Guard.
Statsrådet Carl-Oskar Bohlin (M)
Madam Speaker! I naturally take note of the signal regarding an administrative burden that is not perceived as purposeful. I am happy to meet with representatives from the trade union Tull-Kust to hear their views on the matter. This is not a perspective that I personally have encountered when I have met various coast guards, but I am not saying that it does not exist. I am completely open to taking part in that perspective.
I would like to broaden the perspective and say that it is not solely the number of employees that defines the capability, but it is also, of course, what access one has to technical aids, different platforms, and so on. As I mentioned earlier, we have included targeted support to the Coast Guard in our amendment budget to purchase technical equipment during the year, which also contributes to increasing the capability. We want to get as much capability as possible per employee and per coast guard officer in the agency. That is, of course, completely central. The funding allocations I have spoken about here are increases in level, that is to say, a permanently higher ambition for the agency which, of course, reflects the difficult security situation.
To conclude by mentioning something about the demarcation between different tasks, I largely share the view that everything the Coast Guard does is important. Environmental monitoring or environmental rescue, the capability for environmental rescue, is important. Maritime surveillance is important. Intelligence work is important. Cooperation with the Navy and the rest of the Armed Forces and the police is important. We don't actually want to deprioritize anything, but perhaps emphasize that the maritime situational awareness work and the cooperation with the Armed Forces must be intensified as a result of it being a relatively, I won't say new but increasing task.
The capability on the environmental protection side has been ingrained and good for a long time. Sweden has one of the foremost capabilities in the Baltic Sea area in that area. That does not mean that one should let go of that competence or capability. It means that one must be able to do that as well, because it is unfortunately the case that also an environmental scenario could unfold as part of, for example, a hybrid operation. It is naturally completely central to maintain that capability, but it has also become clear and urgent that we must prioritize that one also builds up other capabilities that previously may have been at a much lower level or historically have not existed and which now must exist in a clearer way. That involves, among other things, clarifying roles and responsibilities towards the Armed Forces but also strengthening the joint work with building maritime situational awareness and devoting oneself to maritime surveillance.
Hanna Westerén (S)
Madam Speaker! The number of employees does not determine the capability, says the Minister for Civil Defence.
(Minister CARL-OSKAR BOHLIN (M): Not only that!)
(THIRD DEPUTY SPEAKER: The floor is now given to the interpellor, Hanna Westerén.)
The number of employees does not decide, no, not fully. That is absolutely the case. But I think it is reasonable to strive towards staffing the ships one has to the greatest extent possible, and the picture I get is that the number of employees is not fully sufficient to staff the ships one has. There, as I said, we are talking about extremely competent personnel who can staff extremely technically advanced ships. But they are not fully sufficient. It is not the Coast Guard's own fault, but it is a political responsibility to ensure that it grows from the mission it has. We are not there today; the Minister for Civil Defence has also conceded that.
The situational awareness and the cooperation with the Armed Forces are prioritized, and I can understand that. But I also want to emphasize what the Minister for Civil Defence himself said here at the end – that environmental monitoring, seen in a larger perspective, is extremely important when we notice that the Baltic Sea is becoming much more militarily interesting and we know that the enemy we are talking about operates in several different ways. In that case, environmental monitoring becomes one piece of many. We must ensure that we keep our guard up, and there, the Coast Guard is absolutely crucial.
I believe we must hold together these perspectives, hold together the entire mandate for the Coast Guard, and find a reasonable balance where environmental monitoring does not fall too far behind. Thank you for the debate!
Statsrådet Carl-Oskar Bohlin (M)
Madam Speaker! Excuse me for interrupting, but I expect to be quoted correctly in this chamber. I said that it is not only the personnel that constitute what builds capability. It is a significant difference, because that is, of course, how it is. Ships, technical aids, and peripheral equipment also build capability. If we only had personnel and no ships, we would have no capability. If we only had ships and no personnel, we would also have no capability. It speaks for itself.
Therefore, the government is taking measures to increase capability also in terms of technical aids. It is clear that we must have an agency that is in balance. That is, among other things, why we are now doing what I outlined in my introduction. We ensure that we have double admission classes and have adjusted the admission requirements so that more can apply. One has paid education, and one receives all qualifications from the beginning. So it was not earlier, but that is how it is now. This will naturally create better conditions to ensure that we have a coast guard that can meet a more difficult global situation and ensure that one has fully adequate personnel supply under those conditions. I believe that is completely central to building capability in the civil defense and in the total defense also in the maritime domain.
(THIRD DEPUTY SPEAKER: Note that it is only one of the participants in the interpellation debates who has the floor, regardless of whether one quotes correctly or not.)
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.