On August 1, 2022, a new Swedish law governing accessibility (2022:818) came into force, replacing the former PSI Law (2010:566) on the reuse of public sector information. The new law (2002:818) was introduced for the purpose of implementing the EU directive (2019/1024) on open data and the reuse of information from the public sector.
The purpose of the law on open data is to facilitate the accessibility of data for further use, especially in the form of open data, on condition
- that the requirements of information security and protection of personal data can be met; and
- that there is no risk to Sweden’s security.
Here, data refers to all information in digital format, regardless of medium.
The law does not grant the right of access to data. Rather, the law regulates how to make data available for reuse. The right to access data is regulated in other legislation, such as, for example, the Freedom of the Press Act (chapter 2).
According to chapter 1, § 6 of the law (2022:818), state universities and university colleges must apply the law only when it comes to research data.