Rescue Act to be reformed on basis of preliminary study and comments received during consultation round

The Ministry of the Interior has set up a legislative project to prepare urgent and necessary amendments to the Rescue Act. The aim is to update the Rescue Act on the basis of a preliminary study and the comments received on it during the consultation round.

The purpose of the amendments is to reform the Rescue Act to better reflect the operating environment of the rescue services, future developments and the ongoing wellbeing services county reform. The amendments to the Rescue Act that require more thorough legislative drafting and impact assessment, as outlined in the preliminary study and the comments received, will be implemented during the next government term.

The preliminary study assessed the functioning and clarity of the provisions of the Rescue Act, and whether they were up to date. It also explored possible needs for amendments to the Rescue Act from the perspectives of incident and accident prevention and supervision, rescue operations, preparedness and civil defence, as well as of the structure and common provisions of the Act. A total of 83 comments were received on the study.

The legislative project was set up for the period 1 September 2021–30 September 2022. The relevant government proposal is due to be submitted to Parliament during the autumn session 2022.

Inquiries:
Mika Kättö, Director of Legislative Affairs, tel. +358 295 488 413, [email protected]