MaktkartanPublished: Text updated:
Agencies are subordinate to the government
State administrative agencies are subordinate to the government, except for those subordinate to the Riksdag, such as the National Audit Office and the Riksbank.
The government decides collectively. An individual minister cannot give an agency orders on their own.
Instruction, appropriation directive and assignments
Each agency has an instruction describing its tasks and form of management. Each year the agency receives an appropriation directive with funds, objectives and reporting requirements.
The government can also give specific assignments during the year. All of this steers the activity as a whole, not individual decisions.
The ban on ministerial rule
The Instrument of Government states that no authority, not even the government, may determine how an administrative agency shall decide in a matter concerning the exercise of public authority against an individual or a municipality, or concerning the application of law.
Breaking this is referred to in public debate as ministerial rule. In practice the question is examined by the Committee on the Constitution and by the Parliamentary Ombudsmen.
How agencies are led
Most agencies are single-manager agencies led by a director-general appointed by the government. Others are led by a board or by a committee.
The agency is itself accountable to the government for its activity and reports it in an annual report.