Ministry of Social Affairs and Health starts legislative drafting based on Government Programme
The Government Programme of Prime Minister Petteri Orpo contains a number of entries on legislation related to the mandate of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health. The entries concern, for example, the organisation of healthcare and social welfare services, benefits and pensions.
Legislative drafting is at the core of the ministry’s mandate
The ministries’ core tasks include the implementation of the Government Programme and the preparation and monitoring of acts and other statutes. In practice, an entry in the Government Programme often acts as a catalyst for related legislative drafting.
Some of the proposals in the new Government Programme are finance acts that have a direct impact on central government revenue and expenditure. The finance acts must be submitted to Parliament in the autumn in connection with the budget proposal for 2024.
So far, the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health has started work only on a small number of the finance acts. Information on the legislative projects will be published in the Gateway to Information on Government Projects as soon as they are started. Information on the Ministry’s ongoing legislative projects is available at:
Information on the legislative drafting process
Preparation may begin as part of public officials’ normal duties or a working group or committee may be appointed for this purpose. Once a draft government proposal has been completed, it is sent out for comments to receive feedback.
Based on the feedback, the government proposal is then finalised and sent to legal revision. The Finnish Council of Regulatory Impact Analysis (FCRIA) selects a number of proposals for closer inspection and issues an opinion on the proposals’ impact assessment, and this opinion is also taken into account in further work. The proposal is also translated into Swedish.
After this, the Government decides on submitting the proposal for consideration in Parliament which can be followed on Parliament's website.
The President of the Republic approves the bill adopted by Parliament. The decisions made by the President of the Republic are available on the Government website. All statutes are published in the Statute Book of Finland. Legislation in force is available on the Finlex website.
- Decisions of the Government and the President of the Republic (in Finnish)Linkki toiselle sivustolle
- FinlexLinkki toiselle sivustolle
All government matters concerning the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health have been compiled into our own online service.
The Ministry of Social Affairs and Health – like all other ministries – monitors the functioning of the legislation it prepares and the subsequent need for changes.
More detailed information on the preparation of legislation can be found on the website of the Ministry of Justice.
The Government Programme: