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Demokratiskolan
The Intelligence agencies card from MethodKit for Society and Politics
Card 117 of 128 · MethodKit for Society & Politics
  • AreaSafety & defense
  • Centre of gravityCentral government
  • Points of influence2 on the journey
  • Decisive electionThe general election
Safety & defense

Intelligence agencies

Collecting information & diverting threats

The intelligence services work in silence: they gather information about threats to Sweden before they can become reality. The Security Service (Säkerhetspolisen), Must and FRA are entirely national, and precisely for that reason democratic oversight rests on the Riksdag, the courts and, in the end, your vote.

Where does the power lie?1

  • State · the whole service & oversight · approx 95 %
  • EU · sharing between countries · approx 5 %

Intelligence is the core of the central government: municipalities and regions have no formal role. The general election decides the laws, the money and the transparency.

How it works: the breakdown

The municipalityOutside the mandate
The regionActivity worth protecting
Central governmentThe whole service · centre of gravity
Who decides?
No formal role. The municipality runs no intelligence operations.
No formal role. The region protects its own activity.
The Security Service (Säkerhetspolisen), Must within the Swedish Armed Forces and FRA, under the Government's direction.
What do they decide?
The municipality can be a target rather than an actor: waterworks, ports and IT systems are worth protecting under the protective security act.
Hospitals, medical record systems and power supply are worth protecting and fall under the protective security act, but the region does no spying itself.
Counter-espionage, counter-terrorism, signals intelligence and protective security. The Riksdag writes the laws that set the limits.
Where are decisions made?
In the municipality's own protective security work, usually under the municipal executive board.
In the region's protective security analysis and preparedness plans.
Behind secrecy, but with open yearbooks, court review of signals intelligence and scrutiny after the fact.
Who pays?
Municipal tax pays for its own protective security, nothing more.
Regional tax pays for its own protection.
The central government budget, decided by the Riksdag.
Fastest way in?
The municipal election Ask how the municipality protects waterworks and IT systems. Protective security is a public matter.
The regional election The regional election matters only indirectly, through how healthcare's systems are protected.
The general election The general election steers laws and budget. Referrals on surveillance laws are open to everyone.
EUEU countries share intelligence on terrorism and hybrid threats, but intelligence is a national competence. The European Parliament election matters mostly at the edges.

Read the table by column to understand one level, or by row to compare the levels. The green level is the area's centre of gravity.

How it works: follow the decision

The case A threat is picked up: from signal to action
  1. State

    The Riksdag sets the framework

    The laws on signals intelligence and secret coercive measures decide what the services may and may not do. Each expansion is weighed against your personal privacy, in open debate and legislation.

    Point of influence

    The general election steers the legislation, and proposals for new surveillance laws are sent out for referral that anyone can respond to.

  2. State

    The Government points out the direction

    The Government decides what defense intelligence should focus on: which countries, which threats, which questions. The direction is secret but the responsibility is political.

  3. State

    A court reviews before the surveillance

    FRA may not conduct signals intelligence freely: the Defense Intelligence Court reviews every permit in advance. It is one of democracy's safeguards in a system that is otherwise closed.

  4. State

    The Security Service acts

    When the information points to a concrete threat, the Security Service can investigate, warn exposed organizations or intervene. Most of it never becomes public.

    Point of influence

    You can request that the Swedish Commission on Security and Integrity Protection check whether you have been subjected to secret surveillance on incorrect grounds.

  5. State

    The scrutineers come afterwards

    The Swedish Foreign Intelligence Inspectorate, the Parliamentary Ombudsman (JO) and the Riksdag's bodies scrutinize whether the laws have been followed. The oversight largely happens behind closed doors, but it reports openly.

  6. Your everyday life

    The threat you never noticed

    A foiled attack or an exposed espionage attempt rarely shows up in your everyday life, and that is the point. Your transparency runs through the elected representatives you vote for every four years.

The journey looks the same in reverse: what has been built came the same way, through the same decisions. Whoever knows where the decisions are made also knows where they can be changed.

Questions to discuss

  1. How much surveillance is reasonable to prevent threats, and who should draw the line?

  2. Secrecy is necessary for the job but hard for democracy. How do you oversee what you are not allowed to see?

  3. Which threats to Sweden worry you most, and which of them can an intelligence service actually do something about?

  4. What would make you trust the secret agencies more, or less?

  5. Where is the line between protecting democracy and restricting it?

Glossary

Signalspaning
Gathering information from electronic signals, in Sweden FRA's task and always after a court permit.
Kontraspionage
The work of detecting and stopping other countries' spies in Sweden.
Must
The Military Intelligence and Security Service, a part of the Swedish Armed Forces.
Säkerhetsskydd
The protection of Sweden's most sensitive activities, a responsibility for municipalities and regions too.
Hemliga tvångsmedel
Interception and surveillance that require legal grounds and, as a rule, a court decision.

Go further

Footnotes

1) This is an estimate of how decision-making power over the issue is split between the municipality, the region, central government and the EU, based on how responsibility is divided in legislation. A teaching guide, not an exact measurement.