Civilian intelligence legislation would improve Finland’s national security

The Government has proposed the adoption of intelligence legislation in Finland, with the aim of improving our protection capabilities against serious threats to national security. Such threats include terrorism, espionage by foreign states or disruption of critical infrastructure. The focus of intelligence gathering by the Finnish Security Intelligence Service would therefore be on identifying threats and responding to them at an earlier stage. The Government submitted a proposal for civilian intelligence legislation to Parliament on 25 January.

At the same time, the Government submitted to Parliament proposals for military intelligence, oversight of intelligence gathering and amendment to the Constitution. These proposals have been prepared at the Ministry of Defence and the Ministry of Justice, and they are also part of the intelligence legislation package.

Intelligence gathering methods would be partly new and partly based on current legislation

According to the legislative proposal, a new chapter on civilian intelligence would be added to the Police Act and a new act on network traffic intelligence as part of civilian intelligence would be enacted. It is also proposed that the Finnish Security Intelligence Service be given intelligence powers both in Finland and abroad.

Intelligence gathering methods would be partly based on the intelligence gathering methods already laid down in the Police Act. Completely new powers would be intelligence gathering on specific locations, copying of a message, interruption of the delivery of a message for copying and network traffic intelligence.

The purpose of these intelligence gathering methods would be to provide state leaders with essential information on operations that pose a serious threat to national security for the purpose of supporting their decision making and safeguarding national security. The security environment in Finland is changing rapidly, and new threats demand a new kind of preparedness and contingency planning.

Courts would decide on network traffic intelligence

Network traffic intelligence would enable technical intelligence gathering of cross-border traffic in the communications network and the processing of this information. A specific objective of network traffic intelligence would be to improve Finland’s capability to protect against most serious cyber threats.

Courts would decide on network traffic intelligence. They would also decide on intelligence gathering on specific locations when intelligence gathering would be targeted at domestic premises, or premises to which there is no public access. The director of the Finnish Security Intelligence Service would decide on foreign intelligence, the use of intelligence methods in foreign intelligence and participation in international cooperation. The use of new intelligence powers would be tightly controlled.

Information obtained through intelligence methods could, under certain conditions, be disclosed to criminal investigation authorities or other competent authorities. The criteria for disclosure would be strict.

When preparing the bills, efforts were made to interfere with the fundamental rights as minimally as possible.

Inquiries:

Marko Meriniemi, Senior Adviser for Legislative Affairs, tel. +358 295 488 561, [email protected]