Response to interpellation 2024/25:92 on measures to stop HVB homes run by criminals
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
M considers it unacceptable that criminal actors receive public funding 1 and that the government is acting forcefully by strengthening Ivo's supervision and cooperation with the police 1. M emphasizes that homes run by criminals must be closed 2 and that the government takes responsibility for addressing deficiencies. M wants to see more municipal HVB homes and give staff the authority to take away children's mobile phones. M emphasizes that some privately run homes have high quality 3 and works for a safe environment 3. S argues that criminal networks send children into organized crime 4 and that privatization finances crime 4. S demands a comprehensive oversight of the HVB market 5.
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 Camilla Waltersson Grönvall (M)
Madam Speaker! Gustaf Lantz has asked me what I and the government intend to do to ensure that no children and young people are placed in HVB homes run by criminals.
That unserious or criminal actors conduct activities with public funding is completely unacceptable. It means that welfare resources are being misused, but above all, children and young people risk not receiving the care and support they need and are entitled to. It also means that these children and young people risk being drawn into crime or otherwise being put in danger. Children and young people in the care of the state must always have the right to feel safe.
That is why the government is now acting powerfully on several fronts.
The Inspectorate for Health and Social Services, Ivo, has an important role in the work against unscrupulous and criminal actors through its licensing and supervisory mandate. At the beginning of the year, the Government gave Ivo a mandate to strengthen and develop its work to prevent and counteract welfare crime and the presence of unscrupulous actors within social services.
The government has also recently given 6 million kronor to Ivo for a mission to further strengthen the supervision of group homes and homes for care or residence, HVB, which receive children and young people. This shall be done, among other things, by streamlining the cooperation with the Police Authority and the Economic Crime Authority.
The assignment also includes reporting an order for how Ivo's ownership and management review can be expanded and carried out regularly in the authority's supervision of these activities, as well as carrying out such supervision during 2025. For these assignments and other measures in the work against unserious and criminal actors, Ivo has received a reinforcement of 30 million kronor during 2024.
Recently, we also gathered Ivo, the Swedish Police Authority, and the Swedish Economic Crime Authority to establish which concrete measures need to be taken in the near term and to ensure that the authorities cooperate effectively to prevent criminals from operating in or infiltrating HVB. I and the government are following the issue closely.
To ensure that no children and young people are placed in HVB run by criminals, the municipalities also have an important role. The municipalities have an obligation to both closely monitor the care of the children and young people cared for in, among other places, HVB, and to monitor activities that have been handed over to a private provider through an agreement.
An important part of the government's work with this issue is to improve the opportunities for central actors to exchange relevant information. Work is currently underway with several initiatives for changes in the legislation on this issue. The government has, for example, recently received the report Increased information exchange between authorities (SOU 2024:63). There, a new general secrecy-breaking provision is proposed which shall make it possible for authorities and municipalities to, under certain conditions, share confidential information about individuals with one another, among other things if it is needed to counter criminal activity.
The Government has also, in the Council of Legislation referral Increased information flow to crime prevention, presented proposals that, among others, municipalities, regions and a large number of state authorities shall be obliged to provide information to crime prevention.
The crime that Gustaf Lantz describes must be combated with the collective capacity of society. Everyone who can have a role in the work must take responsibility and contribute. I am keen to do everything in my power so that children and young people in the care of society feel safe and receive good care.
Gustaf Lantz (S)
Madam Speaker! Thank you for the answer, Minister! My question was asked against the background of the 18 HVB homes that the police have inspected, where in all cases they found links to organized crime.
On August 27, the Minister for Social Services went on the radio with the message that the HVB homes that the police pointed out would be closed immediately. In my world, "immediately" has already occurred counting from August 27. I would like to know if these 18 HVB homes are closed, as the Minister for Social Services promised.
Madam Speaker! According to the police, there are criminal network connections to owners, managers, and staff at the HVB homes. In other words, Sweden is sending the most vulnerable children to organized crime. These are children and young people who need support and help and who have already ended up very wrongly in life. We also know that organized crime looks among placed children to be able to assign murder missions. This must be stopped.
Madam Speaker! A place in a HVB home can easily cost 10,000 kronor per day. That is 10,000 kronor per day per child straight into the pockets of organized crime. Nothing has been more generous towards organized crime than the naive privatization of our common welfare.
Madam Speaker! Every day, hard-working Swedes go to their jobs and see a portion of their wages go into organized crime via the tax receipt. It is bad enough that criminals buy Audi and Gucci with money that should have gone to childcare. Even worse is when they invest the money in weapons and drugs. Because that is exactly what they do. When tax crowns are exchanged for bitcoin, we are financing our own insecurity. This must be stopped.
Does the Minister have any information to give as to whether these 18 criminal HVB homes have been closed, as promised? Does the Minister for Social Services even know which homes these are? And finally: Does she feel safe herself? And does she feel that she has control over the situation?
Statsrådet Camilla Waltersson Grönvall (M)
Madam Speaker! Thank you, Gustaf Lantz, for a question that I know concerns us both greatly and which makes us both very upset! I know that the member, just like me, strongly safeguards children's safety and security and the ability to provide children and young people with the conditions to have a bright future.
That children and young people who are already in a very vulnerable situation are placed directly into the hands of criminal actors is completely unacceptable and something that must be acted against. My and the government's message is the same as I left on that date: These homes must be closed. And it must happen as soon as possible.
The committee members are very well aware that the possibility of closing the homes directly is not in the government's toolbox. It is done through the authorities that have the possibility to do so. In this case, it is Ivo. The government has worked intensively there with several different tools. We have provided a total of 30 million in resources and, just a few weeks ago, made a special investment of 6 million on a mission specifically aimed at the review of HVB. One also has a sharpened mandate to work together with the Police Authority and the Economic Crime Authority.
I believe the member is also familiar with that Ivo, a few years ago when the Social Democrats ruled the country, identified a number of deficiencies where they needed much sharper tools and where they did not have a toolbox that allowed them to act as powerfully as they themselves desired. That list was sent over to the Social Democratic government. Lo and behold – almost nothing happened with that list during the previous term.
When the current government took office, we immediately began working with the proposals that are there. This means that today there is access to other registers and other information than Ivo had when this parliamentary term began. But more proposals are on the way. They will also be significant.
It means that there is a great deal of work to be done on the legislative side. Not all 40 proposals have bearing on welfare crime and on this issue, it should be said. But just over 20 proposals on the 40-point list have this government identified as bearing on this, and we are now working to ensure that they are implemented.
There is not a day when I do not wish that this work had been started significantly earlier, because then the situation for the most vulnerable children and young people would not have been as serious as it is. But we have our full focus directed towards the future and that this shall be rectified.
That is why we have assigned a sharpened mandate and significant resources to Ivo but also merged these agencies, which can now also act in a completely different, workshop-like manner to close these homes. A number of homes have been closed, and the work continues.
Gustaf Lantz (S)
Madam Speaker! I was educated as a lawyer at Uppsala University, so I know very well what the constitution says about a minister's possibility to govern agencies directly.
That is why I was also very surprised when I heard the message that the Minister for Social Services came out with on the radio. It would be better if she said that it became a bit too hasty and that she made a mistake, instead of trying to lecture me on what the constitution says. Those of you watching this debate can check for yourselves on Sveriges Radio's website. The interview from August 27 is there. I think it is a tiresome element in Swedish politics if one starts arguing that they haven't said what they have said.
With that said, I believe the Minister has donned the favorite garment a Tidö politician can wear: the social democratic victim's coat. Blaming the Social Democrats for not having done enough is starting to become overused, and I believe the voters are very tired of that victim mentality. It is a bit like blaming an uncleaned storage room on an ex who moved out over two years ago. It simply doesn't hold up anymore.
We have an acute situation that changes every day, an increasing problem with criminal actors who lay their hands on the children who have it the hardest in society. It is the government that has the command and is at the wheel now, and it is time that we agree on that.
I am also concerned that the government has a very difficult time seeing that markets can fail. The government often speaks about individual responsibility. That is good, but can the government see that an industry is so corrupt that society must regain control?
It is good to have more money for scrutiny, more meetings with actors and powerful words at press conferences, but it is not enough. It has not been enough, and it will not be enough.
The government has yawned at the Social Democrats' proposal to take back the HVB homes where criminal youths are placed from the municipalities. But what are your own ideas for a thorough oversight of the HVB homes? It is urgent, and it is important.
Leave the ideology of how we view markets in general and look at the HVB market specifically! There are unhealthy drivers and a lack of control here. We must see reality as it is. The HVB homes need to be straightened out.
For me, reality is more important than the map. For me, practice is more important than theory. For me, the human being is more important than the market.
Unfortunately, the government repeatedly misses clear goals to do what the Minister for Social Services has said and what I agree must be done: to combat this type of crime with the collective capacity of society.
Take, for example, the requirement to have a licensed auditor, a certified auditor, for companies with a turnover of up to 3 million kronor, which the right-wing government abolished in 2010. The Andersson government wanted to reintroduce the requirement. The investigation was complete, but this government has thrown it in the wastebasket.
It is very provoking to know that in Málaga, the gang leaders are sitting and laughing at the Swedish system, which ensures that their party is paid for. The greed, the fiddling, the cheating, the criminality, and the corruption continue.
Organized crime uses the HVB homes as cash boxes and for brokering murder assignments. We politicians can put a stop to this, and the Minister for Social Services is the one who holds the stop button in front of them.
Statsrådet Camilla Waltersson Grönvall (M)
Madam Speaker! I have said what I said – that these HVB homes must be stopped and closed immediately. I stand by this today as well, and I assume the member has the same message if he is asked how he reacts to these reports.
I react just as strongly today as I did at that time. This must be closed as soon as possible. That children and young people are in the hands of these criminal elements is something that touches me and upsets me deeply. Therefore, my commitment is also very sincere and my determination to act against this is very honest.
This entire activity, where criminal actors are eating their way into the very core of the welfare system, is something that this government has declared war against. I look forward to us being able to continue cooperating in this chamber regarding the proposals that will now be presented concerning the fight against welfare crime.
When it comes to the HVB homes, the member knows just as well as I do that the issue is complex. A few weeks ago, two municipal HVB homes were closed. That shows that the criminal actors are eating their way into different kinds of activities, and I believe it is important that we can now have a discussion and a dialogue with the seriousness that this issue deserves.
It is about quality - that the children and young people who are placed in social care should be able to feel safe. They should be able to feel secure. They should feel better when they leave social care than they did when they were placed in it. Therefore, it is quality that must be the guiding principle. We must combat poor quality, regardless of whether it exists in municipal or other activities.
Municipalities already have the opportunity today to start HVB homes. Despite this, only a quarter of the HVB homes that exist in Sweden are run by municipalities. I would like to see more municipalities take the initiative and start a qualitative operation.
The government is also working with this investigation to give the staff at HVB homes the powers that are lacking today - and, I want to say, that have been lacking for a long time. There have been good conditions and opportunities during eight years of holding government power to ensure these powers so that they are already in place. It is simply a matter of stating that.
I state a fact: We are taking responsibility where it has not been done previously. It is not about shifting blame. It is about taking responsibility for the fact that children and young people have suffered harm in this country for many years, not just the last two years but much further back than that – probably longer than just the two parliamentary terms we have behind us.
When I meet staff at HVB homes, it is the powers they constantly highlight. We must give them the powers to take away from the children and young people, for example their mobile phones, where they have contacts with unserious people outside, and we must be able to ensure that they can keep them at the HVB homes. These are parts of what we are investigating, and it will also be addressed.
Gustaf Lantz (S)
Madam Speaker! I note that I have not received answers to my questions. These 18 HVB homes - are they in operation, or are they closed? I have not received an answer to that.
I must conclude that the system we have today does not meet what the Minister and I so dearly want – that these homes should be able to be closed immediately. Therefore, I think it is interesting to discuss how we can get a system in place so that when tasks such as these come from the police, the starting point shall be that they are to be closed immediately. The burden of proof should not lie on society.
I agree that the staff shortage at public - municipal - HVB homes is something appalling. That drugs have been found at HVB homes is also appalling. It is good that these have now been closed. But two wrongs do not make a right. This is a total market failure. The situation in the entire market is appalling. In that case, it is not right to let the people who run HVB homes take the profits. In that case, one has owners and boards who are in the clutches of organized crime.
It was good that the police were able to intervene so that Ivo could close the HVB homes, but we must have higher demands and Ivo must have sharper teeth. It should not be required that one catches a drug center at the HVB residence itself. If this is the requirement for Ivo to be able to close it, we have a lot of work to do.
I really want the Minister for Social Services to succeed with this. I know that everyone in Sweden wants that, because it is so important. But then we must stop blaming when and where the decisions were made. Now is the time for us to step up together for Sweden and, above all, for the children.
Statsrådet Camilla Waltersson Grönvall (M)
Madam Speaker! I have naturally not seen this list. I do not know if the Member of Parliament has seen it. What I understand is that it is an intelligence report from the police, and Ivo is now working on it in various ways together with, among others, the police and the Economic Crime Authority.
For easily understood reasons, we all understand that all information linked to such a report cannot be made public. It would naturally play right into the hands of the criminal actors. When society closes down homes, we want it to happen for good, not for an appeal in court to give them the permits back.
That is why it is important to now work with all the tools we have here, but also to ensure that more and sharper tools are put in place. It is clear that Ivo needs to make a journey to become a sharper supervisory authority. That is why a petition has also been sent. It was made both to the previous government and to the current one, and we are working full out to take care of the proposals that we consider relevant in this context.
I am, however, somewhat concerned when Gustaf Lantz speaks about all HVB homes as if they do not have high quality. I know that my question will be rhetorical because there is no possibility to answer, but do Gustaf Lantz and the Socialdemokraters really want to close the homes that function well and have high quality? A number of privately run homes naturally function very well and have high quality.
In conclusion: The Government is working to ensure that all children and young people have a safe environment in society's care.
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.