Extended background checks during employment in a municipality

Mattias Vepsä (S)

Mr. Speaker! The social development in recent years shows that we must strengthen society's resilience against organized crime. The police report that the crime we experience is increasingly organized. Criminal gangs continue to recruit children and young people into ever more serious crime. In recent years, we have seen how criminals do not shy away from any means and are ready to approach the most vulnerable children through infiltration of HVB home activities.

We see how the welfare systems are challenged and exploited by criminals. In the just-presented ESO report Black Figures, it appears from a new calculation that the criminal economy turns over a staggering 352 billion kronor annually with profits of 185 billion kronor. Within that sum is a large part pure and utter welfare crime.

When the welfare state's control capabilities are weakened, those who are most dependent on society's support—that is, the elderly, persons with disabilities, as well as children and young people—are affected. They are hit hard when society's opportunities for control are weak.

There are also several high-profile incidents in recent times, not least the reporting on sexual abuse in elderly care. They show that we must increase control and that we must strengthen society's resilience.

Today's debate concerns the proposal for expanded register checks upon employment in a municipality. The proposal involves two new laws regarding register checks for work in the home for elderly persons or adults with disabilities, respectively, and register checks upon employment in leadership positions in municipalities, as well as proposals for amendments to the law on register checks of persons who are to work with children. The purpose is to prevent persons with criminal or harmful intentions from taking employment in municipal activities.

These changes are welcome and are about protecting people and increasing resilience in the municipalities and in welfare activities. The municipalities are now given an opportunity, in more cases than today, to perform a register check when someone applies for a position to work in the home of an elderly person or a person with a disability. This possibility is lacking today. The new law means that a check of extracts from the criminal record register and the suspicion register may be performed if the person offered employment is to perform the interventions in the home. Furthermore, the proposal also applies to interventions for persons with disabilities, that is, the Social Services Act and LSS.

Today's decision gives the municipalities, in more cases than today, the opportunity to request a check of persons who are to work with children. The decision provides increased opportunity for control, and it means that the law becomes more accurate in order to address new forms of crime, being subjected to crime, or being drawn into criminality. Not least, it is about combating the risk of being subjected to abuse.

Stronger protection for the municipalities' operations is introduced, and it gives the municipalities the right to perform register checks during recruitments involving work tasks where there is a risk that the individual can be subjected to influence or that the municipalities cannot perform their mandate. This means increased opportunities to request register extracts from the criminal record register and the suspicion register, and at the same time, this implies a restriction on personal integrity. But the changes that are proposed will strengthen individuals, children, the elderly, and persons with disabilities, that is to say, strengthen the municipalities' opportunities to combat influence and crime.

We Social Democrats believe that the government and the previous investigation that has looked at the issue balance the two aspects in a good way. We have previously pushed to give the municipalities strengthened opportunities, and we want to see further changes ahead so that it will be possible to perform so-called extended background checks on prospective employees and existing staff. We are therefore ready to take further steps in the work.

We will therefore follow up on how the government works with the issue, and we note, just as the committee does in the report, that a new investigation named the Investigation on background checks has been commissioned. The investigation has been tasked with broadening the question of background checks, which means looking at which actors should be granted access to or expanded access to registers, whether more checks should be mandatory, and to what extent personnel may be checked. The assignment is to be reported in March 2027, and we intend to press the government to ensure that it is completed.

Mr. Speaker! In recent years, we have seen more and more examples of how criminals deceive their way into the welfare system, in order to gain access to welfare benefits or exert influence over both decisions and contracts. An expanded possibility for background checks is therefore important for crime prevention work. But we must do more.

We have enormous challenges in Sweden when it comes to how society lacks control when a blind market faith has been allowed to rule for a long time. For everyone watching and following the debate, I can inform you that the committee took a joint trip to Italy during the autumn. We were given an insight into Italy's work against the mafia and serious organized crime. Besides the obvious that Sweden needs a Swedish mafia law that takes a unified grip on crime in other countries, for example Italy, are incredibly clear-sighted when it comes to how one handles public contracts. It requires, among other things, an anti-mafia certification to be eligible for public contracts. That is something that is missing in Sweden.

The municipalities' crime prevention work is anchored in law, but we know that more municipalities need to do more. And we need to do more so that the municipalities can do their work. We are therefore extremely critical of how the government and the Sverigedemokraterna have, over the years, cut state grants to the country's municipalities, which means that crime prevention work is pitted against children, investments in schools, or more social workers out in the field. This is anything but appropriate if one wants to combat serious organized crime.

The government's and the Sweden Democrats' greatest failure when it comes to crime fighting is that more and more children and young people are currently being drawn into increasingly serious crime. The gangs continue to recruit online, offline, and furthermore in HVB homes. We cannot have it this way.

Organized crime must be met by a strong, robust and organized society. More police and more powerful tools, of course, but the government and SD must also realize that decades of market solutions in welfare, choice systems and privatizations have systematically eroded society's resilience against crime and corruption. It has made us vulnerable to crime and influence. Not least, unscrupulous and criminal actors hit children, the elderly and persons with disabilities very hard. It is about fraud, but the ultimate consequence is abuse and exploitation.

As I began my speech, the criminal economy turns over enormous sums, 352 billion kronor with a profit of 185 billion kronor. A reorganization of policy and a holistic view, a new direction, is required. Today we make a decision on increased register control, and I move for approval of the proposal in the report.

(Applause)

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Ulrika Liljeberg (C)

Mr. Speaker! The current bill, which is on the Riksdag's table today, regarding expanded opportunities for register checks is very welcome and in demand and something the Center Party has long campaigned for. It involves, among other things, a new opportunity for register checks of persons who are to work in the home for elderly persons or adults with disabilities, as well as an expanded opportunity for checks in the suspicion register of persons who are to work with children. It also involves increased control when it comes to certain leadership positions in the municipality.

I want to take this opportunity to both highlight and thank everyone who works in the public sector – from those who work with us here in the chamber in the Riksdag today to the firefighter in the municipal rescue service, the nursing assistant at the hospital, and those responsible for finances at government agencies. You work every day, all year round, in our common sector. You need to have the right resources, the right legal framework, the right colleagues, and the right protection.

Today we are addressing the requirements we have for you who are to work in the public sector. These are requirements intended to protect and provide security and safety for those you are there for – users, patients, citizens, and customers in the public sector.

It is completely correct and right that there is a possibility for public employers to check you in load registers and suspicion registers. But we also need to protect you so that you can do your important job, and here Centerpartiet believes that more can be done. Centerpartiet has therefore proposed that those who work against serious organized crime should have a broader protection than they have today, especially when it comes to the exposure of decision-makers' names.

Social workers, bailiffs, environmental inspectors and case officers at Försäkringskassan are all important in the fight against serious organized crime. They need to receive the same protection that police now have if there is a tangible threat against them or their families. It is right that the police have this protection, but more people who are involved in the same fight should also have it. It is regrettable that more parties do not stand behind this. Sweden must be able to do better than this.

Mr. Speaker! We can return to the aspects we have to deal with today. We have said: Good policy is being proposed, but it is too little. There is truly no lack of ambition in Swedish politics, but there is a lack of implementation power, and there are further needs.

To begin with, a possibility for ongoing or recurring background checks during ongoing employment is needed. Therefore, it is positive that the government has tasked the Commission on Background Checks with submitting proposals for a regulatory framework on follow-up background checks. However, it is not to be reported until March 2027, which is two and a half years after the commission was appointed. I believe it is even longer than the time the comprehensive constitutional commission was given. Since the issue is urgent, the government that governs the country next spring should prioritize the work of preparing proposals so that we can obtain concrete and legally secure legislation on ongoing checks of employees.

Furthermore, the development of organized crime, criminal economy, illicit influence, and attempts to infiltrate welfare activities necessitates a need to broaden the catalogs of which crimes should be included in this register extract. It is today's risks that need to be reflected, not yesterday's risks. Therefore, the government should promptly expand the number of crimes that shall appear in these register checks.

Finally, the Centre Party considers it important that in all kinds of activities, not just some, there is a possibility for register checks of persons who in their assignment have direct or regular contact with adults with an intellectual disability. I appreciate that several parties have highlighted just that vulnerable group. We have heard in the media about court cases where persons have been subjected to the grossest abuses. The adults with intellectual disabilities need increased protection. The Government should therefore ensure that the Inquiry on background checks also investigates that question.

As said: All of this is needed to protect both our democracy and our rule of law, as well as all the users, children, elderly and people with disabilities who need us the most.

I vote in favor of the reservation.

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

Pontus Andersson Garpvall (SD)

Mr. Speaker! In December, Expressen did a report on the men who have been convicted of raping elderly women within elderly care.

Shakir Mahmoud Shakir raped a 100-year-old woman in home care after she alerted about chest pains. Baasim Yusuf filmed when he raped elderly women during his work shifts. Melsh Keleta was caught in the act when he raped a woman with Alzheimer's in the shower at the elderly care home. Ali Hassan Zada raped a woman when he worked alone.

These are just four of many cases where some of society's most vulnerable people have been subjected to some of the worst things a human being can be exposed to. One of the reasons, in addition to the personal responsibility of the person who committed the act, has been the poor screening of individuals who are employed in these types of professions.

Between 2021 and 2025, almost 400 reports of rape were made against persons over 60 years old in Sweden. Far from all were persons within elderly care, but this still shows how widespread these serious crimes against elderly people actually are.

Today, it is proposed that we introduce a new possibility for register checks for both persons who are to work in the home of elderly persons or adults with disabilities, and persons who are to be employed in leadership positions within municipalities. Furthermore, the possibility for register checks of persons who are to work with children is expanded. This means that municipalities shall, in more cases than today, be able to access information from the criminal records register and, in some cases, also the suspicion register before they employ anyone. The purpose of the changes is to prevent persons with criminal or harmful intentions from taking employment in municipal activities.

Even crimes that are sometimes dismissed as less serious, such as thefts or financial exploitation, have become more common within elderly care. When society's most vulnerable are affected, no crime is too small. It is therefore more than necessary to introduce these new possibilities for register checks.

We in the Sweden Democrats, since we were elected to municipal councils around Sweden, have repeatedly submitted motions that register checks should be carried out during new hires within elderly care and LSS. From our side, it is therefore long-awaited that the legislation is now finally being put in place. A government with the Sweden Democrats' support was needed for the proposals to finally be implemented.

Unfortunately, for a long time, work within elderly care has been seen as an integration project to get people into work. This can certainly work well in many cases, but it has unfortunately resulted in major deficiencies that have affected the elderly. Language barriers have led to misjudgments, but above all, they have hindered the elderly's communication with those who work with them.

Mr. Speaker! Elderly care should not be an integration project. Our elderly should, after a long life, be met with the respect they deserve. Therefore, on July 1 of this year, a language requirement is introduced in elderly care, and as early as March 1, the possibility of register checks of persons who are to work within both elderly care and LSS is expanded.

The changes concerning expanded opportunities for register checks of those who are to work with children are also incredibly important. For a couple of years, I have repeatedly met and spoken with Sara Nilsson and Patrik Sjöberg from Dumpen, and I am convinced that they see these proposals as a step in the right direction.

Regarding the much-debated proposal of the past week on increased penalties for gross defamation, we have also been clear that we should not raise the penalty scales before we have decided how we are to change the provision on defamation so that truthful statements that are justified are not punished.

What one must also remember regarding those who target children is that the vast majority have not yet been detected. These individuals will, therefore, not be caught by the new bill on register checks. Here we need completely different approaches. That the police, from April 1 of this year, will be able to arrest persons who set out to meet a fictitious child to commit a sexual assault and that these persons can then be convicted of the attempted crime is a step in the right direction. Here, Sara Nilsson, Patrik Sjöberg and all other people who work together with Dumpen have done extremely important work over the recent years. Thanks to their diligent work, many who work within schools and in community life have been able to be detected. From the chamber of the Riksdag, I would therefore like to extend a big thank you to you.

The Sweden Democrats have, as said, long fought for this to become a reality. That we can now stand here in the chamber of the Riksdag and have a broad consensus on the new proposals regarding register control is truly uplifting.

I would like to conclude by expressing my strong support for the committee's proposal.

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FÖRSTE VICE TALMANNEN

I would like to remind the members that the circumstances and actions of individuals may not be discussed in the chamber. It is, therefore, the naming of individuals that is the issue.

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Ulrika Westerlund (MP)

Mr. Speaker! Now there are many repetitions.

Miljöpartiet also welcomes the government's proposals for two new laws on register checks for work in the home for elderly persons or adults with disabilities, register checks for employment in leadership positions in municipalities, as well as proposals for amendments to, among others, the law on register checks of persons who are to work with children.

It is good, we also think, that municipalities should be able to access information from the burden register and, in some cases, also the suspicion register before they hire anyone, in more cases than today. The purpose is, of course, to prevent persons with criminal or harmful intentions from taking employment in municipal activities.

Miljöpartiet has also joined Centerpartiet's reservation regarding further expanding this regulation for the future. We were pleased to see this motion, as there are some aspects of it that have often been raised with me by members of Miljöpartiet, such as those working in various municipalities. A possibility was needed to conduct ongoing or recurring background checks during ongoing employment, and therefore it is positive that the government has tasked the Commission on background checks with submitting proposals for a purposeful, proportionate, and legally secure regulatory framework for follow-up background checks during ongoing employment or assignments. It is therefore important that the government prioritizes the work of preparing the proposals submitted by the commission so that these can result in concrete and legally secure legislation as soon as possible.

We also agree with the Center Party – and, I am sure, more parties here – that the development of serious organized crime, the criminal economy, and attempts to infiltrate welfare activities have created a need to broaden the catalogs of which types of crimes should appear in a register extract. It should include crimes that can be assumed to affect suitability for an employment involving the exercise of authority or that provides access to sensitive information, economic resources, or vulnerable individuals. Naturally, the change must meet the necessary requirements for proportionality and privacy protection for the individual.

We also finally agree with the Center Party's reservation regarding the need for a possibility of register checks in all types of activities for persons who, in their assignment, have direct or regular contact with adults with an intellectual disability. We therefore want the government to ensure that the investigation already at work also looks into that question.

With this, I move for approval of the reservation.

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Charlotte Nordström (M)

Mr. Speaker! The stories are becoming more numerous. The reports and the concern are heard all around Sweden. We have seen how elderly people let home care staff into their homes and are then subjected to abuse and horrific violence – in their own residence, a place where they should be able to feel safe and receive help with life's most basic needs without feeling fear. It has also been shown that staff have been known for serious crimes.

Today, people are being allowed into the homes of elderly people. People are being given power over elderly people who cannot defend themselves and over adults with disabilities who are completely dependent on society's support. Nevertheless, the municipalities have until now lacked a clear legal basis to even check whether the person who is to perform the interventions has previously been convicted or suspected of serious crimes.

We know now that violence, sexual assault, theft and fraud occur. It is not acceptable. It is not worthy of a rule of law and is not compatible with public responsibility. It undermines trust in the welfare system, for without safety there is no welfare worthy of the name. This is what the bill now addresses.

Today, our society is being tested. Organized crime is no longer a problem alongside the welfare state but seeks its way straight into the structures of society, into the municipalities, into care, into decision-making. We know that social workers and municipal officials are pressured, threatened, and influenced. We know that organized crime is a threat to the system. Municipalities that risk being infiltrated by criminal networks must have the opportunity to defend themselves. Deficient regulatory frameworks must not become an obstacle to necessary controls.

In the autumn of 2023, Södertälje Municipality received criticism from JO for having, without legal basis, checked whether employees had previously committed crimes. The municipality wanted to protect citizens and staff against organized crime but lacked the right tools. Municipalities that risk being infiltrated must be able to defend themselves. They want to protect citizens and staff but have lacked the right tools. This is both unreasonable and unacceptable.

Against the reality we have, good intentions are not enough. This is about safety. It is about trust. One can actually be quite surprised that real tools have not already been in place for the municipalities to perform necessary background checks.

Mr. Speaker! The Government's proposal on expanded register checks is an important first step. The municipalities will receive a legally secure and clear legislative basis to request extracts from the criminal record and suspicion register for persons who are to work with elderly and adult persons with disabilities in their own homes. It concerns work that often takes place without oversight, where the individual is completely dependent on the person performing the intervention. The protective value is obvious, and the measure is both proportionate and justified. One should be able to feel safe and secure with the persons who one lets over one's threshold.

The register check when working with children is expanded to also include information from the suspicion register, and the validity period for the extracts is shortened. The checks will therefore become more purposeful and current. It strengthens protection where it is needed most. This is sound.

The municipalities also get the opportunity to check the background register before hiring for leadership positions and other key roles. Someone who wants to infiltrate a municipality does not do so randomly. They seek influence, information, and control. This is crucial.

Register checks are one tool among several. An extract is never a judgment; it is a basis. But to completely refrain from checks when the risks are known is to abdicate from the responsibility. It is the individual who presents the extract themselves. A register extract does not also imply an automatic position but shall serve as a basis for an individual assessment and must be combined with other measures such as security-conscious recruitment and reference checking.

That the municipalities now receive a legal and legally secure tool to protect their own operations is not controversial. It is necessary for the security of the welfare, for the trust in the municipalities, and for a society that takes the threats against itself seriously. We start from reality as it is, not as we wish it to be. When the threats change, the state must change. Security is a core task for the public sector.

Mr. Speaker! More measures are needed. We know that the issue of follow-up controls and a broader regulatory framework must be resolved. In some motions, the need for additional measures has also been raised, and I can think that it is completely the right direction. But the government has appointed a special inquiry on background checks with a mandate to take a comprehensive grip within the area, and there is no reason to anticipate this work. As an eager supporter of this inquiry coming to fruition – oh, how I wait for it to come here to the chamber of the Riksdag!

This bill is an important first step to protect the elderly and children as well as the municipalities' most central functions. It is proposed to enter into force on March 1 this year. Soon, expanded register checks will also be introduced within the education sector. Step by step, we ensure that there is order and tidiness.

The proposal's suggestions are well-considered, legally sound, and proportionate. They strengthen the protection for vulnerable people, increase safety in municipal operations, and contribute to countering infiltration and unauthorized influence without compromising fundamental rule-of-law principles.

Mr. Speaker! I vote in favor of the committee's proposal that the Riksdag supports the government bill and move for the rejection of the motions and the reservation.

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Gudrun Nordborg (V)

Mr. Speaker! In line with the government and many others, I consider it highly important that we prevent crime in the welfare sector. Through the current legislative proposals, the risk of children, the elderly, and persons with disabilities being subjected to crime, primarily within municipal activities, is reduced. This naturally results in increased safety for them and their relatives. It also counters what we have been horrified by in recent times, with many black headlines about abuses that have occurred within the welfare sector against both children and the elderly and against persons with disabilities. We must recreate a trust for the welfare sector in a broad sense.

The reform and the legislative proposals have another very important purpose, namely to prevent infiltration and unauthorized influence prior to the employment of individuals to leading positions within the municipality. I and Vänsterpartiet therefore stand behind the legislative proposals. But it is not entirely uncomplicated. These reforms challenge and border on important principles that we have within a rule of law. When is one actually finished serving a sentence? Should markings and restrictions continue after one has served their sentence? How should we interpret the presumption of innocence, that is, that a person should be perceived as innocent until a conviction exists?

The challenges arise primarily in connection with the use of the criminal record register and, in particular, the suspicion register. That an individual person has committed a crime that is included in the criminal record register is unfortunately interpreted by some employers as meaning that it is impossible to employ the person. I see it as very important that it is now marked in the preparatory works that an individual assessment shall take place. A person who has committed a minor crime – perhaps several years ago – which does not involve violence or sexual assault should be able to gain access to the labor market and the important rehabilitation that a job obviously entails. This will also depend on how the new rules are used. It will be important to monitor that.

The principle of the presumption of innocence is further challenged by this matter regarding the records of convictions. An attempt has been made to set a limit, so that not every suspicion can be "flagged up"; there must at least be an indictment. But we are still close to and nibbling at the edges of the important rule-of-law principles, which I am a little worried that perhaps only Vänsterpartiet is highlighting now.

Then it is about the extremely important functions regarding those who hold a critical or leading position. Before such an employment, one should be extra controlled. It is quite obvious what it could involve within the municipal operations: granting of permits, for example for building permits, procurement activities, recruitment of staff, handling of large financial matters otherwise, association grants, and so on. Here we should also be able to include questions about financial assistance and the care of children, where many employees today become very exposed in their professional function. It also remains to be seen how this will be interpreted in the application of the law.

Something I have noticed in the preparatory works is that it is specified that it must concern an employment. That means that certain groups who may have a very large impact on the municipal operations are not included. If one, for example, hires staffing agencies, the people there are not included. The same applies to external consultants. That one excludes interns, I do not think is strange. They may not have the same opportunities. But we don't really know that either. Why is such a strict line drawn, when there are others who perhaps also have great influence on the municipalities in the signs of privatization?

Several referral bodies have questioned that the controls of the leading positions should be voluntary and emphasized that they should be mandatory controls. Others have questioned that one stops at the municipalities. Here I can agree. We must continue to monitor, I think, whether even the regions need to have the same opportunities for control of critical positions in their operations.

Finally, I want to issue a warning that register checks could create a false sense of security. We know that it is far from everything that gets caught in the net of the police, prosecutors, and courts. Much of the crime that we want to point fingers at escapes and occurs hidden; there are large dark figures. Register checks are not enough. I believe it is at least equally important to see to what happens in the workplace. Sufficient staffing is needed. One needs to avoid solitary work. We need present managers. These are also central components. The same applies to the opportunities for whistleblowing and the protection of those who dare to sound the alarm about irregularities in their workplace.

With that, I, with a warning flag, nevertheless move for approval of the bills.

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Torsten Elofsson (KD)

Mr. Speaker! Entering at the end of the debate inevitably means, unfortunately, that there will be some repetitions. I ask for your indulgence in that regard.

Initially, I would like to express my support for the proposal in the Committee on Justice's report, which we are now debating. It is welcome that the government proposes statutory and increased opportunities for register checks of municipal employees working in home care, in special housing, and within LSS, the Act on Special Support and Service for Certain Disabled People.

The elderly and people with disabilities are, like children, particularly vulnerable and exposed. We set special requirements for the staff who are to provide them with support and help in everyday life. But we have recently been reached by reports pointing to a number of abuses in home care, especially against elderly women. Let me give some examples. In Gällivare, a user stated in 2024 that she had been raped during the night. The incident was reported to the police. In Vänersborg, a user described in 2024 that she had been subjected to sexual abuse by an employee and had felt intense fear. Upsala Nya Tidning conducted an investigation and subsequently wrote: ”From Malmö to Kiruna, in Bålsta, Piteå, and Örnsköldsvik. All around Sweden, elderly people have been sexually harassed, sometimes even raped, by people who are supposed to care for and take care of them.”

Anders Östlund, a criminologist at police region Mitt, has examined 400 reported cases of rape against women over 60 years old. In about twenty cases, home care staff are identified as the perpetrators. Unfortunately, there are good reasons to assume for various reasons that there is a large dark figure, but even one crime of this nature is one too many. It is something horrific and involves a violation that leaves deep scars and creates an insecurity that the victim carries with them for the rest of their life.

Mr. Speaker! The now proposed register check is a step in the right direction, but it is in itself a blunt instrument. Certainly, many of those caught lack convictions for many of the crimes now committed. It is not at all certain that they even appear in the police's suspicion register. It was mentioned that one is indeed tapping a bit on this, but an indictment must be filed in order for the information to be released. This does not mean that one is convicted forever, but it can mean that one puts the appointment procedure on hold until the case is settled.

What makes me thoroughly upset is the fact that the municipalities do not always take their responsibility. Time and again, it is noted that reports of abuse against both children and the elderly are hushed up. They conduct their own investigations, which sometimes end with a dismissal of the person pointed out, who shortly thereafter seeks and sometimes receives similar employment in another municipality. In some cases, individuals have even been allowed to keep their employment.

Zero tolerance must apply here. Suspected offenses must be reported to and investigated by the police. Anything else is completely unthinkable – in any case, in my world.

Mr. Speaker! Actually, it is remarkable that we allow men in home care to perform intimate hygiene on female care recipients. In other contexts, it is statutory that body searches and body inspections of a woman may not be performed by a man. But in healthcare and home care, it apparently goes well. We Christian Democrats want to put a stop to that. The same condition should, of course, also apply within home care. The Christian Democrats are driving the issue and demand that elderly people in home care should be allowed to choose the gender of the care personnel for the most intimate moments in care.

Mr. Speaker! Something else addressed in the report concerns organized crime, which has made its entry into Swedish society with all that it entails. The society we know, based on trust and confidence, is changing at a rapid pace.

As mentioned earlier, the Expert Group for Studies in Public Finance has, in a recently presented report, stated that the extent of the criminal economy is estimated to be around 352 billion annually with profits of around 185 billion. A picture emerges where crime within legal structures plays a larger role than illegal markets where weapons and drugs are traded. Part of this consists of criminal organizations attempting to infiltrate society-critical functions, exert unauthorized influence on employees in such functions, or recruit so-called enablers.

When it comes to the attempts at influence against municipal employees, there is a collective picture that they primarily come from criminal groups or individuals with connections to such groups. To a lesser extent, the attempts at influence are made by persons with connections to violent extremism. This is a real problem in some places and for some operations. We Christian Democrats therefore welcome the proposal to give municipalities the opportunity to conduct register checks of employees in certain key positions.

A special investigator has also been tasked with analyzing the need for and the conditions for conducting background checks in both public and private operations. The purpose of the assignment is, among other things, to provide operations with appropriate tools before and during employment so that they can prevent the risks that the presence of persons with criminal or other harmful intentions poses in workplaces. The investigation is to be reported first in March 2027.

Personally, I would have liked to see the legislation be in place significantly earlier than that, but I realize that we have a certain preparatory procedure in the Riksdag and the government. We simply have to be patient. It is, however, an urgent issue, and the developments call for rapid and crime-preventing interventions.

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Martin Melin (L)

Mr. Speaker! I shall be brief, as we parties here in the chamber are also very much in agreement on this issue.

The debate, as said, is about whether municipalities should be able to screen persons who are to work with children, adults with disabilities, or the elderly. We are talking here about screenings that are carried out by requesting extracts from the police registers.

As we have heard earlier, there are various reasons why an employee should be screened before he or she is granted a certain employment within the municipality, in addition to jobs with the groups I mentioned. It can be about wanting to prevent infiltration in sensitive activities, especially if the person in question is to work in a position that is particularly sensitive to influence. What we perhaps primarily think of, however, is that criminals should not be able to work with vulnerable persons such as the elderly, adults with disabilities and children, that is to say groups that are not infrequently dependent on other people in their daily lives.

Today, there is legal support for requesting extracts from the criminal record register when hiring staff who will work with children. The government proposes, with the new law, that this shall also apply to those who are to work with the elderly and adults with disabilities.

To summarize the whole thing: If you are to work in the future with children, adults with disabilities, or the elderly within the municipality, you must prove that you have a criminal record that does not make you unsuitable for the task.

This is something that my party has wanted for a very long time. We are glad that it is now being implemented.

Finally, Mr. Speaker, I want to raise a small warning finger or, rather said, make a side note. In the proposal, I read that the person who applies for a position within the municipality shall present an extract from the criminal record. I want to take into account that it is possible today to purchase false extracts from the criminal record. I hope that this is looked into so that the system does not fail because it is possible to purchase a false extract from the criminal record and present it to an employer, and so it goes wrong. But I take for granted that this has been looked into.

With that, I stand behind the committee's proposal.

The deliberation was hereby concluded.

(Decisions were made under § 12.)

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