Response to interpellation 2025/26:102 on HVB homes and organized crime

Socialtjänstministern Camilla Waltersson Grönvall (M)

Mr. Speaker! Gustaf Lantz has asked me what measures I and the government intend to take to counter the organized crime's ownership, neglect, and profit extraction within Swedish youth care. Furthermore, Gustaf Lantz has asked me whether I and the government assess that there are now grounds to shut down the HVB market.

That unserious or criminal actors conduct activities with public funding is extremely serious, regardless of which form of operation it concerns. It means that welfare resources are being misused, but above all, it means that 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 harmed. I am firmly determined that these actors shall be excluded from the care system and that the quality of care shall be ensured for all placed children and young people.

The Government has acted and continues to act forcefully to prevent unserious actors from operating homes for care or residential care, HVB. The Inspectorate for Health and Social Services, Ivo, has an important role in the work against unserious and criminal actors through its licensing and supervisory mandate. The Government has given Ivo several assignments to improve the authority's conditions to strengthen and develop its work in preventing and countering welfare crime. Ivo has also received a specifically targeted assignment regarding the supervision of group homes and HVB that receive children and young people (S2024/01643).

In addition to the mentioned assignments, the government decided in May on an assignment to several agencies to consolidate efforts against organized crime in the welfare sector (S2025/01085). The assignment aims to combat the criminal economy and shut out organized crime from some of the welfare sector's most crime-affected areas.

Furthermore, in September, the government adopted a decision on the bill Skarpa re verktyg till Inspektionen för vård och omsorg (prop. 2025/26:15). In the bill, it is proposed, among other things, that permits for operations, for example for HVB, which have been dormant for a longer period shall be able to be revoked and that it is clarified that the suitability assessment shall also include the legal entity, which is judged to hinder the use of straw men.

The Government has also tasked a special investigator to propose measures to strengthen Ivo's and the municipalities' possibilities to counter unserious and criminal operators within the care market – Measures for a healthy care market, dir. 2025:90. The investigator shall, among other things, analyze and take a position on whether stricter requirements for permits to operate are needed, whether permits should be able to be revoked in more situations, and propose how Ivo can access information from the suspicion register in a purposeful manner.

An important part of the government's work is to improve the possibilities for central actors to exchange information. The government has made a decision on the bill Increased information exchange between authorities – a new confidentiality-breaking provision (prop. 2024/25:180), where a new provision is proposed that makes it possible for authorities and municipalities to, under certain conditions, share confidential information about individuals with one another if it is needed to, among other things, counter criminal activity.

The government demonstrates through these measures that the issue is of the highest priority. I also want to mention the municipalities' responsibility in this. They have an obligation to both carefully follow the care of the children and young people cared for in HVB as well as to follow up on the activities that they have handed over to private operators through agreements.

The crime that Gustaf Lantz describes must be combated with the collective capacity of society. But the HVB that today make a great difference in the lives of vulnerable children with high quality must be allowed to remain, regardless of the form of operation. This is a question of quality and children's rights, not about political ideology. I am keen to do everything in my power so that children and young people in the society's care feel safe and receive good care.

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Gustaf Lantz (S)

Mr. Speaker! Thank you very much for the answer, Minister!

When it comes to children with links to crime, the development is now very dark. This week we have a twelve-year-old murder suspect in Malmö. We know that the proportion of children involved in murder cases has increased by 500 percent over the last three years. When it comes to explosions, the figure is up to 5,000 percent. It is a skyrocketing, worrying and very dark development.

I had the privilege of meeting elected representatives within Seko, a union that organizes people who work within Sis. It became a very good conversation – I wish the Minister had been able to join. I hope that you use the knowledge that exists within the workers' organizations. It is an important piece of the puzzle when it comes to getting the right measures in place.

They said something to me that was a bit touching, namely that it is never anyone who thanks them or says that they are doing a good job. This applies to those who work at HVB homes or within Sis. In the public debate, we point almost exclusively at what is not working. It is important to say here today that great efforts are being made. There are big hearts and great expertise among those who work within Swedish youth care.

But there are also systematic deficiencies, which those who work there see and react to, and they want a change. It is, among other things, about them seeing the entire care chain. They see what happens before Sis and what happens after. They see that there are very many HVB homes that function very poorly. And they see that private HVB homes are owned and operated by criminals.

It is clear that it becomes a frustration. You invest your time and your soul, and you put in work to achieve a positive development. Then you know that there are, at the very least, unserious actors, criminals, in whose activities these children end up.

I and my party would like to see measures. We want it to be stated that the situation is so serious that ownership must be taken back into the public hands. I know that the government has dismissed this. I know that the Prime Minister has said that it would be like banning private real estate companies. I think it is a very ideological view, if I may borrow the Minister's words, to not try to solve the situation but instead cling to this discussion. The choice between children's rights and ownership rights is easy for me. We must resort to new means, and this is such a measure.

I also think that the police should be given the authority to close these homes themselves. If it is known that criminal ownership and criminal activity occur in the homes, the police should be able to close them.

We have talked about that Ivo has received more resources and, to some extent, more tools. I think that is good. I think, however, that it is too little and too late.

We should also have so-called reverse burden of proof. It is the one who drives the home who should show that one has clean milk in the bag and that it is decent – it is not the state that should be standing there knocking.

I mean, therefore, that there are things that can be done and that should be done, and I wish that the government takes this to heart.

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Socialtjänstministern Camilla Waltersson Grönvall (M)

Mr. Speaker! Thank you very much, Gustaf Lantz, for another opportunity to discuss this extremely important issue!

I have soon visited all of Sweden's Sis-homes. It is important to me, perhaps primarily to meet the children and young people who are there and hear their stories. It is far too rarely that we hear children's own voices and their description of what it is that has caused them to end up in HVB-homes. Visiting these homes is also a very important part of the work I do.

When I visit the Sis and HVB homes, I also meet the staff. I always try to set aside enough time to ensure that I can truly include both the children's and the staff's perspectives and voices. This is the basis for a great deal of the reform work that the government has now undertaken.

I note that in a large part of the matters that are now being implemented and the bills that I described in my opening response, there are very many parts that could have been in place for a long time. I arrived at a department where there was a list of 40 legislative proposals from Ivo that they had submitted to the previous government, which bear the same color as Gustaf Lantz. That government had, however, chosen to put the 40-point list in a filing cabinet.

It concerns me that we see today that this awakening among the Social Democrats has occurred so late. Many of the tools requested by the Seko personnel that Gustaf Lantz has met could have been in place for a long time. But this government is now working relentlessly to ensure that these tools are put in place.

Furthermore, the member of the board speaks about the healthcare chain. That is even more distressing. I can state that if the filing cabinets at the Ministry of Social Affairs were not empty, there were old investigations in there that had never been pursued. We are working intensively to get that healthcare chain in place, because it is failing not just in one part but in many parts.

One of the reasons why Paulina Brandberg is now working to support the municipalities in establishing a national placement function is to ensure that it is not a single social worker in a small municipality who calls around to the HVB homes, secures a place, and takes it even though it might not quite correspond to the needs of the child in question. There is, therefore, much to be done.

But it is clear that we also have very many HVB homes that function well. A perhaps more rhetorical question, if Gustaf Lantz does not choose to answer it, is that there has never been any law stating that it is forbidden for municipalities to establish municipal HVB homes. But municipalities, regardless of whether they have been led by my party or Gustaf Lantz's party, have chosen to place in HVB homes, three-quarters of which today are run by private actors – homes that could never have existed if our municipalities had not made these placements. According to the information I have, it looks quite similar regardless of who governs the municipalities.

The question is what we do with the children and young people who are in very well-functioning HVB homes and receive support and help there, if this is to be prohibited in private ownership overnight.

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Gustaf Lantz (S)

Mr. Speaker! I am pleased that the Minister is out in the field and also meeting with the children. I have, of course, also done so, and it provides very much. I have also listened to the children's rights organizations which, in turn, have met with children, collected testimonies, and pointed out very large deficiencies. It is important.

This is in no way contrary to also listening to what the labor organizations have to contribute. It is not the case that they are driven solely by their working environment or because there is a conflict between the adult staff within Sis and the children who are there. On the contrary, they are inspired by the children's perspectives and want it to be good for these children and for them to have a positive development. It is, of course, a major driving force for why one has chosen to work within this sector.

It is easy for it to happen that I am left standing with a black eye in the final post; it has happened before. I will take the opportunity to use my time here so that it does not happen. I am dealing with an experienced minister who often directs the sharpest criticism toward previous governments in his final post, perhaps for tactical reasons. I have nothing against that, but I will take the opportunity now to say that I believe the voters are very interested in a forward-looking discussion. I also do not believe that one wins elections by talking about what was bad four years ago, under a previous government.

I can state that there have been deficiencies in previous governments regardless of color. Things should have been done earlier. But the interesting thing is how we make things better moving forward. If we are to evaluate this mandate period anyway, we see now as we begin to move towards its end that there will not be any major change that will allow us to deal with the criminal HVB homes.

One will not take back ownership. One does not proceed with a reversed burden of proof, which would have been a game changer. One does not proceed with those types of powerful means. It is good that one increases the resources to Ivo and to some extent gives them better tools. But this is, I mean, a major deficiency. It is a great betrayal against these children that we do not handle the development we have.

This has also accelerated the irregularities. We have received the police report and audits from Ivo which have shown deficiencies during this parliamentary term as well.

I think it is a somewhat passive approach to talk about what previous governments should have done. Imagine if during the pandemic we had had a government that said: "The previous government did not ensure that we had the right healthcare stocks, so it is their fault." This is about stepping forward and taking command. It is about doing things differently.

This is a crisis situation that affects children very severely. We have an accelerating crime among young people in our country that we must seriously address.

Sometimes it sounds as if I am being very radical by suggesting public ownership of HVB homes. I have the habit of traveling to Germany quite often. There, they do not think we are wise. Whether they are Christian Democrats or Social Democrats, they think we have a very strange arrangement where private companies can own HVB homes that take care of the care of young people. When they then hear that these companies in turn are hijacked by criminals and lift tax money, wash money, and recruit youths into criminal activity, they become even more alarmed.

In Germany, they have the system where it is voluntary organizations that, on behalf of the state, run many of these operations. They do so with great success.

Then it is a bit too rhetorically snappy to speak of it being closed overnight. It is clear that there must be a responsible handling of this. It is what I am completely convinced that a coming Social Democratic government will be able to manage.

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Socialtjänstministern Camilla Waltersson Grönvall (M)

Mr. Speaker! Thank you, Gustaf Lantz, for the contribution! Now I know that the member is quite well aware that the government is working on a number of different measures. I described several of the bills that will be incredibly important to address a good deal of these issues. They are being delivered at a rapid pace. It is about the well-being of children and young people. We are going to get a care chain that works. The HVB investigation that presented its proposal in June this year has also proposed powers, which I am convinced that the Sekopersonal that Gustaf Lantz has met has also described.

The absurd thing is that today we have a form of care where one cannot take the mobile phones, cannot inspect the rooms, and cannot inspect the individuals to see if they have drugs or weapons. It is different for a parent, who can indeed check a child's room. But when the state or the municipalities place children and young people in HVB and take on a social responsibility – it is about protection, care, and treatment – the state does not even have the possibility to take possession of a mobile phone. Where do the criminal contacts then occur? Well, they naturally occur to a very high extent with mobile phones.

I also believe that the voters are more interested in what will happen in the future. But there is a certain decency in also having done something in the past when one takes such strong stances as in this case.

This government is now doing a number of different things to address something that I can assure you has been a concern for a significantly longer period than just since October 2022.

The fact that we can now seize mobile phones at Sis-homes means that we have stopped the exemptions and escapes there. But we have the same problem at HVB.

Now there will be new powers. There will be more resources for Ivo and other authorities working with this. We have increased the resources for Ivo over the coming years by over half a billion. They have received the tools they need to also perform the investigative work that is required. It is actually impossible to see if a person is criminal or not – one needs access to registers and to be able to cooperate with the police and other authorities. This has now been made possible through the government's work.

I think it is good that we have discussions here. Fundamentally, we are probably quite in agreement that we need a number of different measures to ensure that these children get a life and a future in safety. There are a number of things left to do, but point by point, they are now being put in place so that the work can be done. And had it been done earlier, there would have been many children who had not fared so badly. That is actually my primary focus.

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Gustaf Lantz (S)

Mr. Speaker! I think Camilla Waltersson Grönvall is an eminently respectable politician. I also think Fredrik Reinfeldt was a very respectable politician, and much of the legislation that is now being reformed also applied during his time in government. I also think that I myself am a respectable politician.

This will be a good test before the election campaign. We should perhaps try more to focus on factual issues, see the positive in each other and stick to a factual discussion.

I thought the Minister argued very well for why we must ensure that we get public ownership of the HVB homes when she talks about the powerful new measures. It is very good that they are coming on site. As I see it, it is not appropriate that private actors are given these powers, especially as we know that it is very difficult to reach the criminals who are in the industry. To give criminals that type of tool is to take a big risk. That also speaks for us having the operation in public hands.

Overall, I think it is poorly suited to let the market handle this, especially as we know how the market has developed regarding HVB-homes.

I now have 45 seconds of speaking time left. I would like to take the opportunity to wish the Speaker, the Presidium, and also the Minister a very Merry Christmas. I hope that you, Camilla Waltersson Grönvall, get some well-deserved rest. I know that you have been caught in a cold several times but have nevertheless persevered with your voice in the chamber. This debate was close to being cancelled a month ago, but now it finally took place. I am grateful for that.

I want to give the minister a tip: Feel free to take the fight with the Prime Minister and explain the difference between private real estate companies and homes that are run to help young people get on the right track in life. It is a very big difference.

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Socialtjänstministern Camilla Waltersson Grönvall (M)

Mr. Speaker! I can assure the members that I am taking the fight against the criminals so that children and young people can receive safe and secure care every day. It is my focus every day in my work and in the mandate I have been given. I am therefore also pleased that a number of much-needed reforms are now in place or on the way.

Time is often what frustrates me the most. I know that I am not alone in feeling that way.

We must not have any criminal actors. The most important thing about the tools that are now coming is that children and young people shall receive greater security and receive better care and treatment. But the authority that grants permits and examines this shall also have the right resources and tools to, together with among others the police, Skatteverket, and Ekobrottsmyndigheten, ensure that no criminal actors will emerge.

Now we move on. We see that there are more areas where we need to ensure that there are no criminal actors. But we are not finished. There are more parts in the bills that are now about to enter into force. They enter into force in just a few days. At that point, there will be other conditions.

But I think it is sad that, because of ideological blinkers, one chooses not to see how much activity there is out there. I would have wished that the Seko employees that the member met also came from the private actors. There is good activity out there, and our most vulnerable children and young people need it.

With this, I would like to thank you for another discussion. I am so glad that there is a very warm and committed member of the Social Democrats when it comes to specifically vulnerable children and young people. I look forward to new debates in 2026. I would like to wish the Speaker, the Chancellery, and the members a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. We will see each other again in 2026!

The interpellations debate was hereby concluded.

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