Scope of the public-access principle: independent adult-education providers and the business-secrets exemption
What's at stake: The decision determines how much public insight there is into how tax money is used in both independent schools and independent adult education, and whether companies' interest in protecting business information can limit that insight.
Case texts and AI reasoning are AI-translated from the Swedish originals; the Swedish text is authoritative.
What the vote decides
The question is whether the public-access principle should also cover independent providers of adult education and apply fully without any business-secrets exemption, or whether the current scope - limited to school-system principals, with room for confidentiality on certain information - should stand.
Yes Yes — the committee proposal
The committee backs the government's decision to limit the public-access principle to school-system principals and the business-secrets exemptions proposed, and therefore rejects the motions calling for it to also cover independent adult-education providers and to remove the exemptions.
No No — the reservations
Reservation 4 (S, V, MP)
The reservation holds that it is notable that independent providers within adult education are not covered, since adult education too is publicly funded and should be subject to the same insight requirements. It also argues that a business-secrets exemption makes it hard to scrutinise how tax money is used and how profits arise within school groups, and wants the public-access principle applied in full without such an exemption.
Summarised from the committee report. Party labels in the summary come from the report, not from the vote.
V–
S–
MP–
C–
L–
KD–
M–
SD–
YesNoAbstainAbsent
What do the votes mean here?
Yes The committee proposal: rejecting the motions (keeping things as they are).
No Backing the counter-proposal: reservation 4 by S, V, MP.
Abstain The party marks a position of its own that is not one of the two final alternatives.
The plan's stance / Actual vote
AI
Vote
Confidence
Evidence
Vown reservation
–
No 0/21/0/0
Sown reservation
–
No 0/106/0/0
MPown reservation
–
No 0/18/0/0
C
–
Yes 24/0/0/0
L
–
Yes 16/0/0/0
KD
–
Yes 19/0/0/0
M
–
Yes 65/0/0/1
SD
–
Yes 69/0/0/1
Committee proposal
The Riksdag rejects motion
2025/26:4024 by Anders Ygeman et al. (S) demands 3 and 4.
Original (Swedish)
Riksdagen avslår motion
2025/26:4024 av Anders Ygeman m.fl. (S) yrkandena 3 och 4.
Riksdag decision: The Riksdag said yes to the government's proposal to introduce the principle of public access for private preschools, private schools, and private after-school centers.
The proposal aims to ensure that the possibility of transparency is the same for all operators within the education sector and essentially entails the following:
The right to access public records shall apply to legal entities that are private operators within the education sector.
Such operators shall be equated with authorities when applying the Act on Public Access to Information and Secrecy, and certain secrecy provisions that apply to such operators shall be adapted so that secrecy does not hinder access to information about the education sector.
Smaller operators shall be permitted to apply rules that provide certain relief in handling public records. This shall apply to operators that have at most 450 children and pupils, or, if they only have private preschools, at most 100 children, or are part of a group where the group companies collectively have that many children or pupils.
What according to the Archives Act applies to archives of municipal authorities shall apply to the affected private operators, with the exception of smaller operators that shall preserve public records as a principal rule for at least seven years.
During the first two years after implementation, all legal entities that are private operators within the education sector shall be permitted to apply relief rules.
The new regulations enter into force on 1 January 2027.
Counter-proposals
The counter-proposal wants to reject the proposals for exceptions to the public disclosure principle for private school operators. (S, V, MP) — Reservation 4
Motion 2025/26:3996 — med anledning av prop. 2025/26:191 Offentlighetsprincipen med lättnadsregler för enskilda mindre huvudmän i skolväsendet av Isabell Mixter m.fl. (V)
Motion 2025/26:4024 — med anledning av prop. 2025/26:191 Offentlighetsprincipen med lättnadsregler för enskilda mindre huvudmän i skolväsendet av Anders Ygeman m.fl. (S)
Motion 2025/26:4049 — med anledning av prop. 2025/26:191 Offentlighetsprincipen med lättnadsregler för enskilda mindre huvudmän i skolväsendet av Camilla Hansén m.fl. (MP)
Proposition 2025/26:191 — Offentlighetsprincipen med lättnadsregler för enskilda mindre huvudmän i skolväsendet