Consultation under way on the Act on the Built Environment Information System

The Ministry of the Environment requests comments on the act concerning the new Built Environment Information System. The act is part of the digital transformation of the built environment. The legislation is being reformed in such a way that the digitalisation of the sector can proceed. The change will have an impact on the information management of numerous stakeholders. Data created in building permit and zoning processes will be harmonised, machine-readable and readily accessible.

The Act on the Built Environment Information System lays down provisions on the establishment and maintenance of the information system and on the information to be stored in it and disclosed through it. The system will be maintained by the Finnish Environment Institute SYKE.
The Built Environment Information System will be in use from the beginning of 2024, when the new legislation is also scheduled to enter into force. In future, the municipalities and counties will save data related to construction and land use into the new system.

With respect to land use data, the act lays down a transitional period of five years, during which the content of the system will grow and be supplemented. The transitional period is necessary because the possibilities to start using the new system and shared data models vary between municipalities. The provisions on the transfer of data created in building permit procedures to the Finnish Environment Institute to be saved into the new system will be laid down in the new Building Act.

This will mean more work for the municipalities during the transitional period, even if in the longer term it will take less time to manage the data. In future, the municipalities need not submit data several times to different authorities. The act would lay down provisions on the right of the Finnish Environment Institute to obtain data from the National Land Survey of Finland, tax administration and the Digital and Population Data Services Agency, which means that up-to-data information would always be available in the Built Environment Information System. DigiFinland will support the municipalities in introducing and starting to use the system.

In the process to prepare the act, a key focus has been on data protection, data security and interoperability of data. In the first stage the information to be saved and managed will be that used by the public administration for its statutory duties. According to the proposal, the use of the information would be free of charge.

Amendments are also proposed to the Land Use and Building Act, where provisions are laid down on the digitalisation of data on land use, including e.g. that in future the zoning plans will be drawn up in a nationally interoperable and machine-readable data model format.

The consultation period ends on 12 August 2022.

• Project Ryhti
• ​​​​​​​The Ministry of the Environment will organise an event to provide background information for the consultation process on 20 June at 14–15.30 (in Finnish).
• Lausuntopalvelu.fi: Government proposal for the Act on the Built Environment Information System and for amending the Land Use and Building Act (In Finnish and Swedish)
• The information to be included in the Built Environment Information System is presented on the website of the Ministry of the Environment. (In Finnish)​​​​​​​

Inquiries

Jaakko Rastas
Senior Specialist
[email protected]
tel. +358 295 250 217
(not available 23 June to 8 July)

Juhana Rautiainen
Programme Manager
[email protected]
tel. +358 295 250 075
(not available 11 July to 5 August)