History of the National Prosecution Authority

The time to reform the prosecution service had come

The actual impetus for the reform was given by Chancellor of Justice Jorma S. Aalto, when he proposed a reorganisation of the prosecution service’s middle and top tiers to the government in 1993. The same view had been expressed by Parliamentary Ombudsman Jacob Söderman in Parliament’s annual report for the previous year.

In fact, the prosecution service had already undergone some major changes in the 1990s, before becoming independent.

In the district reform of the early 1990s, the 233 prosecution districts had been combined into 95 districts, each of which had police, prosecution and enforcement units with as much independence as possible. On the other hand, the 1996 district reform had created 13 district prosecutor’s offices, 60 prosecutor’s departments in district offices and the Regional Prosecutor’s Office of Åland.

In 1997, the new Criminal Procedure Act again changed the status of prosecutors just before the birth of the independent prosecution service. The Act made the prosecutor a key actor in the criminal process.

The independent National Prosecution Authority was inaugurated in 1997

The independent National Prosecution Authority was established on 1 December 1997. The previous three-tiered organisation was replaced by a two-tiered one with the Office of the Prosecutor General as the central administrative authority and 78 local units across the country. The Prosecutor General became the supreme prosecutor in Finland. The Office of the Prosecutor General opened on the corner of Bulevardi and Albertinkatu in Helsinki.

The majority of the civil servants employed in the dissolved prosecution department of the Office of the Chancellor of Justice were transferred to the Office of the Prosecutor General. Prosecutor became a full-time position, and their independence was enshrined in the Constitution.

Development of the prosecution service continues

The development of the prosecution organisation continued shortly after the establishment of the National Prosecution Authority:

On 1 January 2003, 16 cooperation areas were established in the prosecution service, a system of key prosecutors was created to support specialisation, and the work of junior prosecutors and regional groups, among others, was developed.

On 1 April 2007, the local organisation was reformed by the establishment of 15 regional prosecutor’s offices. Offices in mainland Finland were combined into larger entities.

On 1 January 2010, a police crimes investigation team (currently the Police Crimes Unit) was established at the Office of the Prosecutor General to investigate suspected offences committed by police officers.

The number of prosecutor’s offices was reduced to 13 on 1 January 2011 and again to 11 on 1 January 2014.

Planning for a new, even more integrated organisation was started in 2016. The aim of the reform was to develop the activities of the prosecution service and increase productivity without weakening the legal protection of citizens despite the reduction in resources.

On 27 November 2018, Parliament adopted the new Act on the National Prosecution Authority. The same year marked the 40th anniversary of the training provided by the prosecution service, development of which had begun under the Office of the Chancellor of Justice.

The prosecution service merged into a single agency on 1 October 2019

In an extensive organisational reform on 1 October 2019, all local prosecutor’s offices in Finland and the Office of the Prosecutor General were merged into a single national agency called National Prosecution Authority. At the same time, the position of district prosecutor was expanded to cover a larger territory and special prosecutor’s positions were created for the most specialised prosecutors.

The aim of the reform was to develop the operations of the Authority and increase its productivity. As a result, the prosecution service can implement criminal liability without compromising on the legal protection of citizens regardless of ever scarcer resources. The harmonisation of prosecution activities also aims to ensure the more equal treatment of citizens.

After the reform, the National Prosecution Authority consists of the Office of the Prosecutor General, which serves as the central administration unit, and five prosecution districts: Southern Finland, Western Finland, Northern Finland, Eastern Finland and Åland. National Prosecution Authority Finland has 30 offices across Finland.

The Prosecution Districts are responsible for operational prosecution activities in their areas. The responsibilities of the Office of the Prosecutor General include the steering, development and supervision of the prosecution service and prosecutors’ activities.

Twenty years of work for criminal liability

The prosecution service in its current form celebrated its 20th anniversary on 1 December 2017. To honour the anniversary, the Office of the Prosecutor General published Kaksikymmentä vuotta rikosvastuun puolesta – Tjugo år på rättens sida (Twenty years of work for criminal liability).

The publication is a kind of chronicle of the prosecution service in its current form and its prosecutors. It looks at the activities, trends and changes that have dominated the independent prosecution service for its first two decades.

The publication was written by Communications Manager Teuvo Arolainen, who has had a long career as a legal journalist at Helsingin Sanomat. His work was guided and supported by the editorial board consisting of chair Matti Nissinen and members Matti Kuusimäki, Jorma Äijälä, Kirsti Jakobsson, Aira Laari, Heikki Lehto, Tanja Lahti and Raija Toiviainen, who took over as chair of the editorial board in spring 2017.

“Prosecutors have always played an important role in the Finnish criminal justice system. For the past twenty years, they have implemented criminal liability through a neutral and independent prosecution service.

This chronicle records the memories of many people who have built or served in National Prosecution Authority Finland, both prosecutors and the secretaries supporting them. Their stories paint a picture of dedicated professionals who have adopted new methods and modern technology, tackled new criminal phenomena, embraced international cooperation and faced the pressure of the media.”