Response to interpellation 2025/26:579 on the activation of civil service for surveillance activities
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
The debate concerns the activation of civil service for surveillance activities to strengthen Sweden's defense capability. M argues that the government has made formal decisions to use civil service within the surveillance area and is working methodically to train those performing civil service 1. M emphasizes that they are working faster than the previous government, which did not address the issue for eight years 2 3 4. S considers that the need for surveillance during war is great and that it is positive that civil service has been activated 5 6. S criticizes, however, that a finished model, timetable, and concrete implementation plan for the surveillance activities are lacking 5 6 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.
Minister för civilt försvar Carl-Oskar Bohlin (M)
Madam Speaker and the interpellator! Hanna Westerén has asked me how I and the government view the need to promptly proceed with the issue of civil duty for surveillance activities in line with the proposals in Plikten kallar! A modern personnel supply for civil defense and what reasons lie behind the fact that this part of the investigation's proposals has not yet been addressed to the same extent as other parts.
Hanna Westerén has also asked me whether I and the government intend to take the initiative for pilot activities or other gradual measures to begin the construction of this capability, how I and the government assess that responsibility and cooperation should be designed between state agencies, municipalities, and private actors within the surveillance area in such a system, as well as what timetable I and the government see ahead of us for a system with civil duty within surveillance activities to be able to start being built up and put into use.
The government decided in December 2025 that civil service should be activated broadly in order to increase Sweden's defense capability. Civil service was broadened in two ways. Firstly, civil service includes the obligation to report for and complete basic training, and secondly, the government decided to increase the number of activities within which civil service can be used. Among the new activities is security operations. The government has thus made the formal decisions needed to be able to use civil service within the security area in the future.
The Government also submitted the bill A modern personnel supply for civil defense (prop. 2025/26:302) to the Riksdag on 7 July 2026. With the bill, the Government takes the next important step in strengthening the personnel supply of civil defense, including through clearer rules on war placement and staffing responsibility as well as expanded opportunities to identify individuals with skills needed within the total defense.
In the report Duty Calls! A modern personnel supply for civil defense (SOU 2025:6), it is proposed that a number of agencies be tasked to investigate the need for and the possibilities of using civil duty within their respective areas of responsibility. The Government has step-by-step made decisions to handle these proposals through assignments to the relevant agencies, most recently in June within the area of electronic communication.
Trainings of civil servants are already in place regarding the municipal rescue services and operation and maintenance within the electricity supply. Shortly, we will achieve 2,000 trained civil servants and even more who have been war-placed with civil service because they already have relevant competence. These efforts have been crucial for strengthening the capacity within these activities.
The supply of the civil defense's war organization is a major task. Preparations continue within the Government Offices regarding other investigation proposals, including the proposal for a mandate to the Police Authority to further investigate how a system for civil duty within security activities should be designed.
How responsibility and cooperation between authorities, municipalities, and private actors should look within the framework of a system with civil duty within the surveillance area is an important issue for the government and relevant authorities to continue working on. The same applies to the more immediate timeline for the work.
Hanna Westerén (S)
Madam Speaker! I thank Carl-Oskar Bohlin for the answer.
There is today broad political agreement in the Swedish Riksdag that Sweden's total defense needs to be strengthened. Over the recent years, we have seen how the work on the civil obligation has been resumed and developed, which is very welcome. We need a personnel supply that also functions in crisis and war.
That is precisely why the question of surveillance activities raises a particular interest. In a state of high alert and, ultimately, in war, the need for surveillance will increase significantly. The protection of society-critical activities, critical infrastructure, transport, and public facilities is a fundamental part of society's resilience.
Later today, I will also debate with Defense Minister Pål Jonson regarding the security of critical facilities. This is therefore an issue that I believe we all need to keep close to our hearts. This was identified in the investigation Plikten calls! Where it pointed out the need to build up a system for civil duty even within the security area.
From Carl-Oskar Bohlin's response, it appears that the government has made the formal decisions required for civil service to be used within security operations, which is naturally very positive. At the same time, the entire response breathes, as far as I can discern, that the preparation is still ongoing and that much is still unclear. I therefore unfortunately land on the fact that there is no finished model or any decided mission structure. There is also, for heaven's sake, no timetable.
Madam Speaker! It is here my question arises. We know that the need exists, we know that the activity has been identified as important and we know – the Minister said it himself – that the government has activated the civil duty in this area, but we still do not know when the work will actually be put into practice.
I still want to point out that the difference between a formal decision, as the Minister stated, and an actual capability is quite large. A capability is not built by something becoming possible. A capability is built through planning, education, exercise, and staffing. Therefore, I want to ask Carl-Oskar Bohlin: When does the government intend to take the next concrete step to build up a functioning system for civil duty within security operations?
Minister för civilt försvar Carl-Oskar Bohlin (M)
Madam Speaker! I thank Hanna Westerén for the interest in this issue and for the specific question that was put forward.
The answer is that I hope it can happen as soon as possible. I hope that we manage to reach a further government mandate in this area already before the election. It would be urgent, because just as the interpellor said, it is a large and important issue and a large and important part of civil service's potential how we are to use it within the surveillance activities.
It is, however, I must say, a bit late for the Social Democrats to begin taking an interest in this issue a few weeks before an election. The government has worked methodically to activate civil service and ensure that we get started with training civil service personnel. As I mentioned in my answer, we have therefore trained almost 2,000 civil service personnel in Sweden in just over one and a half years, thanks to very swift work with various fast-tracks to get this started.
It is therefore worth reminding oneself that it has been more than ten years since the Defense Commission in 2015 said that civil service should be activated immediately. This did not happen over eight years during the previous Social Democratic government. They did not even take up the issue. It was this government that deliberately began working with the activation of civil service as soon as we took office.
When I stepped into the Ministry of Defence, it was noticeable with what priority these issues had been driven previously. I was told: We can start training civil servants at the earliest in 2027. I said: That is completely unacceptable. Given how the global situation looks, we must move forward with these issues in a fast track.
We managed to start training civil service members already in 2024. Naturally, it could have started as early as 2015 when the Defence Investigation said that it would happen, but it did not. We would probably have had a civil service in place in all these sectors if the previous government had not sat on its hands for eight years and not even made the activation decision.
My counter-question to Hanna Westerén naturally becomes: It is good that you are involved in these issues, but why did you do nothing about the matter even though the Defence Preparation Board already said in 2015 that the civil obligation should be activated immediately? It is only the government that can handle that question.
Hanna Westerén (S)
Madam Speaker! I consider the security situation to be serious. It is clear that it is always possible to talk history and about who has done what or not done what. I do not intend to do that here. I can state that it is positive that the civil defense has been activated and that we have a consensus regarding this.
One thing that I actually thought the Minister would highlight is the investments within the rescue services and the power supply. I see those as very positive, and this is an interpellation that is posed in a positive spirit, regardless of the tone from Carl-Oskar Bohlin. I mean that this is about something important and great. I hope that we can agree on that at least.
This shows that when the government, regardless of color, decides to build up a capability, it is also possible to do so. There are training programs, there is an organization, there are war stations, and there is obviously a concrete way forward.
Regardless of what the previous government did or did not do, the security situation has consistently deteriorated in recent years and it is becoming more and more urgent. I therefore still think it is relevant to know when more happens. Despite the positive decisions that have been highlighted here – I agree that it is positive that civil service has been activated – one is still, as I understand it from Carl-Oskar Bohlin, in an investigative stage. I think that is problematic.
Madam Speaker! I believe that surveillance activities will play an important role during high alert. That is what I believe we need to remember. It concerns protected objects, socially important facilities, and activities that must function even under very difficult conditions. It may be a fact that Carl-Oskar Bohlin ignores me, but I believe the Swedish people need to know when the action plan will arrive.
Carl-Oskar Bohlin says that the issue is important, and we agree that the issue is important, but I still wonder: What concrete steps does the government intend to take during the coming years, if it were to be given the chance to continue governing, to move from preparation to implementation?
Minister för civilt försvar Carl-Oskar Bohlin (M)
Madam Speaker! No, I really do not disregard the interpellor. That is why I answered that question already in my previous contribution. I began by saying that I hope we can reach a decision on a mandate already before the election. It is not certain that we will have time, but hopefully we will do so already before the election. There you have the timeline that you requested.
The reason why I nevertheless dwell a little on the history is that the handling of the issue in the history has affected where we are. We have started with what is absolutely most prioritized and absolutely most important, which is the municipal rescue services sector, followed by the electricity supply sector.
If the previous government had taken up these issues and investigated what we have needed to investigate during this mandate period, we would have gotten much further. Then we would probably already have had a functioning civil service within the surveillance sector. But this is a bandwidth issue. We have had to take this in turn, which has had to do with our ability to get this out of the Government Offices.
I started by saying that according to the forecast I received, we could begin training civil servants as early as 2027. This was the first thing that was said to me when I entered the Ministry of Defence, and I said that we could not work according to such a slow timetable. Now we have trained nearly 2,000 civil servants. Had these steps been taken already in 2015 or 2016, we would today have several thousand more civil servants and probably would have had all sectors' needs reviewed in the way required to introduce civil service. But it was not done, and that is the reason why we are where we are.
What I am trying to say to Hanna Westerén is that we have, in fact, worked twice as fast as the timeline we received when we entered the Ministry of Defence nearly four years ago.
I completely agree with Hanna Westerén regarding the needs assessment in this matter. However, it is a bit hypocritical to stand here and point out that it has gone too slowly when one represents a political faction that did not engage in the issue for eight years.
TREDJE VICE TALMANNEN
Even though we are in the final stretch, I naturally always remind everyone of the rules of conduct in the chamber. It always takes place via the Speaker, even in debates such as these.
Hanna Westerén (S)
Madam Speaker! I perceive it as that Carl-Oskar Bohlin is provoked by the fact that I am inquiring about timing and tempo. I do not do so in order to in any way glorify a previous government, but I do so with a focus on the security situation we find ourselves in. I can only refer to the examples I myself have come into contact with recently where actors who in different ways are engaged in the Swedish total defense have pointed out the need for this to happen expeditiously. It is not I personally who must have this become some sort of feather in the cap for either this government, my own previous government, or the incoming one.
It will be tricky if we are to stand here and discuss history and process. What I believe we must focus much more on is implementation. That is where we find ourselves, and that is what I wish should happen. I actually believe that Carl-Oskar Bohlin wishes the same. We will not get away from the fact that preparation does not build capability. Education, planning and war positioning build capability.
I respect that we have lost time. That is how it is. Some things have gone too slowly, some have not been correctly prioritized. I can concede that – no worries. I mean, however, that the issue deserves continued care and concrete information regarding the next milestone or point in time for further implementation.
Minister för civilt försvar Carl-Oskar Bohlin (M)
Madam Speaker! I shall conclude by repeating myself, as it seems necessary. I have now accounted for the intended timetable in all three of my contributions. I have said that I hope we will be able to make decisions on a government mandate before the election. It is not certain that we will manage to do so, but I hope so.
We are, therefore, in the final stages of the work on this government assignment. That, I want to assert, is an urgent action that stands in contrast to the Social Democratic government which did not lift a finger on the issue of civil duty for eight years.
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.