Establishing the civil service ethics board
Act amending the State Civil Servants Act
Provisions on the Advisory Board on Civil Service Ethics will be laid down in the State Civil Servants Act. The independent body provides state agencies with advisory opinions and recommendations on ethical matters concerning civil servants.
- Status
- Passed with amendments
- Submitted
- 27 Sep 2018
- Latest event
- 15 Jan 2019
- Votes
- 0
- Speeches
- 3
- Confirmed
- 8 Feb 2019
- Statute
- 181/2019
- Source
- eduskunta.fi ↗
What is proposed
A new provision on the Advisory Board on Civil Service Ethics, operating in connection with the Ministry of Finance, will be added to the State Civil Servants Act. The Government will appoint the advisory board for a four-year term to address civil service ethics and promote a consistent operating culture in central government.
What it means
The amendment establishes the previously temporary advisory board on a statutory basis from 1 January 2019. State agencies will be able to request opinions from the body on matters such as civil servants' conflicts of interest and post-employment quarantine agreements when transferring to new duties. The advisory board's positions are advisory and not legally binding, and its operating costs are approximately 10,000 euros a year.
How Parliament voted
The bill passed without a vote – no MP proposed rejecting or amending it in plenary.
Debate in the chamber
What was argued and where each group stood, followed by MPs' speeches verbatim from the parliamentary record. Speeches are shown in their original language.
3 speeches · 2 speakers · 1 debate
Key points of the debate
The debate addressed incorporating the status of the Advisory Board on Civil Service Ethics into the State Civil Servants Act. The Government considered the proposal necessary for coordinating ethical issues and recommendations in a changing operating environment. The opposition, meanwhile, questioned the necessity of a separate body and criticised the fact that its duties and composition would only be laid down in detail by decree.
- Is there a genuine need for a separate advisory board on civil service ethics?
- Should the duties and composition of the body be laid down precisely directly in the act rather than by decree?
- Centre PartyIn favour
The advisory board's statutory status strengthens consistency in civil service ethics and provides practical support and recommendations in situations that cannot be resolved directly by legal norms.
”Nyt tehtävällä virkamieslain muutoksella virallistetaan neuvottelukunnan asema ja tehtävät.”
— Anu Vehviläinen - Finns PartyIn favour with reservations
The group took a reserved view of the project, questioning the necessity of a new body and criticising leaving too much of the regulation to a decree.
”Edelleen eduskunnan apulaisoikeusasiamies kyseenalaistaa tarpeen, miksi tämmöisiä erillisiä kokoonpanoja tarvitaan virkamiesetiikan näkökulmasta. Tämä jää hyvin epäselväksi.”
— Leena Meri
This digest was generated by AI from 3 speeches 13 Sep 2026. Group positions are read from the speeches, not from votes; quotations were checked verbatim against the record.
Keskustelu päättyi. Asia lähetettiin hallintovaliokuntaan.
Stages of consideration
The bill's path from the preliminary debate to the decision, as recorded by Parliament.
- 27 Sep 2018Eduskuntakäsittelyn vireilletulo · Valtiovarainministeriö
- 2 Oct 2018Lähetekeskustelu · Täysistunto
- 14 Dec 2018Valiokunnan mietintö tai lausunto · hallintovaliokunta
- 8 Jan 2019Ensimmäinen käsittely · Täysistunto
- 11 Jan 2019Toinen käsittely · Täysistunto
- 14 Jan 2019Eduskunnan vastaus ja kirjelmä
Decisions by law proposal1
- 1Laki valtion virkamieslain muuttamisestaHyväksytty muutettuna · 181/2019 · 8 Feb 2019
Proposed law text
The law proposals in the bill as the Government presented them. The final act may differ after committee consideration.
The law text is shown in Finnish or Swedish from Parliament's official documents; it is not translated into English.
Laki valtion virkamieslain muuttamisesta
Eduskunnan päätöksen mukaisesti lisätään valtion virkamieslakiin (750/1994) siitä lailla 985/2006 kumotun 68 §:n tilalle uusi 68 § seuraavasti:
68 §
Valtiovarainministeriön yhteydessä toimii valtion virkamieseettinen neuvottelukunta, jonka tehtävänä on käsitellä virkamiesetiikkaan liittyviä asioita ja antaa valtion virastojen pyynnöstä lausuntoja virkamieseettisistä kysymyksistä. Valtioneuvosto asettaa neuvottelukunnan valtiovarainministeriön esityksestä neljäksi vuodeksi kerrallaan.
Neuvottelukunnan kokoonpanosta sekä sen tehtävistä tarkemmin säädetään valtioneuvoston asetuksella.
§
Tämä laki tulee voimaan päivänä kuuta 20 .
Tämän lain voimaan tullessa asetettuna oleva valtion virkamieseettinen neuvottelukunta jatkaa toimikautensa loppuun. Siihen sovelletaan tätä lakia.
Main content of the bill (official)
The summary and title were produced with AI on 13 Sep 2026. They are not official documents – check the details in the original bill. The title and summaries are machine translations of the Finnish AI summaries. Speeches and quotations are always shown in their original language.