Whistleblowing – if you suspect or have information about misconduct

Sweden has a law that protects individuals who report misconduct, commonly known as the Whistleblowing Act. 
The law is intended to provide protection to individuals who report misconduct and to ensure that authorities establish internal channels to facilitate reporting and follow-up. 

What misconduct is covered by the act? 

• For your reporting to be covered by the act, it must: 
  be done in a work-related context; 
• apply to misconduct where there is a public interest in the misconducts disclosure.

Misconduct of public interest means that there is a public interest in the cessation of the misconduct. This could be repeated or systematic misconduct, such as violations of laws, wasting of public funds, corruption, and similar misconduct.

The act also applies to reporting in a work-related context of breaches of EU rules in several areas, including public procurements, prevention of money laundering and financing of terrorism, product safety and product conformity, environmental protection, radiation protection and nuclear safety, food and feed safety and animal health and welfare, protection of privacy and personal data, and the security of network and information systems.As a general rule, the act does not cover misconduct solely related to your own employment situation or a conflict with another employee. 

Who can report misconduct? 

For your report of misconduct to be covered by the act, you must be in one of the categories that are covered by the act and you must report about the misconduct in the manner specified by the University.

For your report of misconduct to be covered by the Whistleblowing Act, you must belong or have belonged to one of the following categories: 
an employee; 

• a job candidate;
• an individual applying for or conducting an internship or volunteer work;
• a self-employed individual applying for or conducting an assignment; 
  a contracted temporary employee; 
• an individual who is part of an administrative, management or supervisory body at the University.

The act’s protection also applies after you have left employment at Umeå University as long as you have been informed of or obtained information about the misconduct while at the University. 
The Whistleblower Act does not apply to students, patients or private individuals. 

Can I remain anonymous? 

If you do not reveal who you are, your report is not consider a whistleblowing as defined by the act. The reason for this is that, if you remain anonymous, the University is unable to determine whether you belong to one of the categories covered by the act. 

How whistleblowers are protected 

The act means that you may not be prevented or punished for reporting misconduct and that in some situations your obligation of professional secrecy can be overridden. You may not be punished for collecting information about individuals related to your misconduct report. 

Your identity is protected by secrecy rules 

The provisions of the Public Access to Information and Secrecy Act (2009:400) apply when reporting as per the Whistleblower Act. These provisions mean that secrecy applies to information that could reveal the identity of the person reporting the misconduct. In some cases, secrecy applies to information that could reveal the identity of a person other than the individual reporting the misconduct. 

If you have an obligation of professional secrecy

If you have reason to report misconduct, you may not be punished or held liable for revealing information covered by secrecy. However, the act does not mean that you have the right to disclose documents that contain information classified as secret. Remember that you may not disclose secret information by reporting misconduct if you have qualified professional secrecy and basic professional secrecy as defined in the Defence Inventions Act.

Other laws also protect whistleblowers 

Right to provide information to the media 

The right to provide information to the media means that all employees in public organisations can provide information to the media for publication without risk of reprisals. To some degree, this also applies to information classified as secret. For example, there are exceptions to the right to provide information to the media if the secrecy is to protect national security. The right to provide information to the media also prohibits attempts to identify the source of information given to the media. 
However, the act does not mean that you have the right to disclose documents that include information classified as secret. 

The right to collect information 

The Freedom of the Press Act and the Fundamental Law on the Freedom of Expression give you the right to collect information with the aim of having the information published. The right to collection information can be seen as an extension of right to provide information to the media. 

Ban on investigating sources 

The ban on investigating sources means that public authorities and other public organisations may not investigate who has provided information to the media. The individual (such as a reporter) who receives information that has been provided for the purpose of being made public is covered by professional secrecy and may not reveal the identity of the informant.