The National Prosecution Authority will start to operate as a single bureau on 1 October
The organisation of the National Prosecution Authority will be reformed on 1 October 2019, when the new Act on the National Prosecution Authority enters into force. The Office of the Prosecutor General and 11 local prosecutor´s offices will merge into one single bureau called the National Prosecution Authority. The National Prosecution Authority comprises the Office of the Prosecutor General that acts as the central administrative unit, and five prosecution districts: Southern Finland, Western Finland, Eastern Finland, Northern Finland and Åland.
The Office of the Prosecutor General is responsible for the operational prerequisites of the entire National Prosecution Authority and carries out the duties of a central administrative unit. The prosecution districts are responsible for organising operative prosecution activities. The National Prosecution Authority is led by the Prosecutor General. The Prosecutor General continues to act as the supreme prosecutor and the superior of the prosecutors. As before, the Prosecutor General is assisted by the Deputy Prosecutor General, who also acts as a deputy. Jukka Rappe is the current Deputy Prosecutor General.
Prosecutor General Raija Toiviainen has appointed the Chief District Prosecutors and Deputy Chief District Prosecutors for the prosecution districts. The Chief District Prosecutor for the Prosecution District of Southern Finland is Harri Lindberg, while Hannele Selin-Hakala is the Chief District Prosecutor for Western Finland, Tom Söderlund for Eastern Finland and Ilpo Virtanen for Northern Finland. The Chief District Prosecutor for the Prosecution District of Åland is Henrik Lindeman, who acts as the deputy of the permanent officeholder Roger Eriksson.
The organisational reform does not affect the number of personnel or offices.
The goal is to improve the legal protection of citizens
A key goal of the reform is to improve the quality of prosecution activities.
– By merging into one single bureau, the National Prosecution Authority aims to provide better legal protection for the citizens. The most important goals of our reform include standardising the decisions made by prosecutors so that the equal treatment of citizens will be realised better, says Prosecutor General Raija Toiviainen.
– The reform is necessary in order to ensure that we can implement criminal liability efficiently, expertly and effectively with our current resources. We must be able to carry out our basic duties, even if our resources have not increased with the amount of work and especially the level of challenge involved in criminal matters.
One single bureau makes the flexible use of resources possible. If work piles up in one prosecution district, another district can process some of its criminal matters.
Our operation becomes more efficient
A revised system of specialised prosecutors will be introduced at the National Prosecution Authority, in which Senior Specialised Prosecutors act as prosecutors on the national level in cases related to their specialisations that are especially demanding. It helps to ensure that the most demanding criminal matters can be handled as efficiently and with as high quality as possible.
The handling of quickly solved criminal matters has been centralised on the prosecutors that handle such matters on a full-time basis. This allows us to improve the uniformity of the decisions made by prosecutors. The reform also invests in the opportunities of prosecutors to specialise, the management and training system, as well as standardised procedures.
New regulations
With the new legislation, the title of District Prosecutor in Finnish changes from ‘kihlakunnansyyttäjä’ to ‘aluesyyttäjä’. Senior Specialised Prosecutor is added as a new title. The Finnish titles of Chief District Prosecutor and District Prosecutor in Åland will not change.
The legislation will continue to provide for the duties of a prosecutor, their jurisdiction, right of access to information, disqualification, being on stand-by and acting as an attorney. The current Act on the Prosecution Service will be repealed in connection with the reform.
Act on the National Prosecution Authority (32/2019) (in Finnish)
Government Decree on the National Prosecution Authority (798/2019) (in Finnish)
New website
The website of the National Prosecution Authority will also be renewed. The new website will be published on 1 October at syyttajalaitos.fi. The website in Swedish will be found at aklagarmyndigheten.fi. The reform combines the current websites vksv.fi and oikeus.fi/syyttaja/ of the National Prosecution Authority into one single website.
The website contents have been renewed and classified based on the needs of the users. The aim of the reform has been to build a website that is easy to use – also with mobile devices. The website publishing system will change; as a result, the old links will no longer work.
Further information:
Prosecutor General Raija Toiviainen, tel. +358 29 562 0802
Contact information
National Prosecution Authority, Office of the Prosecutor General
Lintulahdenkuja 4, FI-00530 Helsinki
Tel.: 029 562 0800
Fax: 029 562 0888
[email protected]
National Prosecution Authority, Prosecution District of Southern Finland
Porkkalankatu 13, FI-00180 Helsinki
Tel.: 029 562 2100
Fax: 029 562 2203
[email protected]
National Prosecution Authority, Prosecution District of Western Finland
Kelloportinkatu 5 A, floor 2 B, FI-33100 Tampere
Tel.: 029 562 4600
Fax: 029 562 4624
[email protected]
National Prosecution Authority, Prosecution District of Eastern Finland
Askonkatu 9, FI-15100 Lahti
Tel.: 029 562 4000
Fax: 029 562 3414
[email protected]
National Prosecution Authority, Prosecution District of Northern Finland
Kiviharjunlenkki 1 B, 2nd floor, FI-90220 Oulu
Tel.: 029 562 9000
Fax: 029 562 9001
[email protected]
National Prosecution Authority, Prosecution District of Åland
Torggatan 16 A, AX-22100 Mariehamn, Åland
Tel.: 029 56 26900
Fax: 029 56 26911
[email protected]
