Tightened liability for parents when their children commit crimes
What's at stake: The proposal means parents/guardians can more often be required to pay damages for crimes committed by their children, including through a higher cap on the amount and by extending liability to cover pure financial loss as well. The question is whether such a tightening actually reduces youth crime and reinforces parental responsibility, or whether it mainly risks hitting financially vulnerable families hard without a clear crime-preventive effect.
Case texts and AI reasoning are AI-translated from the Swedish originals; the Swedish text is authoritative.
What the vote decides
The reservation called for the bill on tightened liability for parents to be rejected while the rest of the proposals were adopted, while the committee held that tightening the liability is justified and wanted to adopt all of the government's proposals.
Yes Yes — the committee proposal
The committee shares the government's view that there are several reasons for tightening the parental liability, including reinforcing parental responsibility and crime-prevention purposes, and notes that parents often have greater ability to influence their child's behaviour and better financial means than the child, and that the tort law's adjustment rules can prevent unreasonable outcomes, and therefore backs all of the government's legislative proposals and rejects the motions.
No No — the reservations
Reservation 1 (V, MP)
The reserving parties (V, MP) largely back the proposals in the bill but oppose tightening parents' liability, pointing to the government inquiry's assessment that the capped amount should not be raised and that it is doubtful a tightening would reduce youth crime, as well as criticism from several consultation bodies that the tightening lacks support for a crime-preventive effect and risks hitting financially vulnerable parents especially hard, and want the Riksdag to reject that specific part of the bill.
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: adopting the government's legislative proposal and rejecting the motions (keeping things as they are).
No Backing the counter-proposal: reservation 1 by 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
S
–
Yes 106/0/0/0
MPown reservation
–
No 0/18/0/0
C
–
Yes 23/0/0/1
L
–
Yes 16/0/0/0
KD
–
Yes 19/0/0/0
M
–
Yes 66/0/0/0
SD
–
Yes 70/0/0/0
Committee proposal
The Riksdag adopts the government's proposal for
1. an act amending the Code of Judicial Procedure,
2. an act amending the Parental Code,
3. an act amending the Enforcement Code,
4. an act amending the Damages Act (1972:207),
5. an act amending the Traffic Damages Act (1975:1410),
6. an act amending the Act (1998:714) on compensation for deprivation of liberty and other coercive measures,
7. an act amending the Insurance Contract Act (2005:104),
8. an act amending the Crime Victim Compensation Act (2014:322).
Thereby the Riksdag adopts proposition 2025/26:222 items 1-8 and rejects the motions
2025/26:4084 by Andreas Lennkvist Manriquez et al. (V) and
2025/26:4085 by Ulrika Westerlund et al. (MP).
Original (Swedish)
Riksdagen antar regeringens förslag till
1. lag om ändring i rättegångsbalken,
2. lag om ändring i föräldrabalken,
3. lag om ändring i utsökningsbalken,
4. lag om ändring i skadeståndslagen (1972:207),
5. lag om ändring i trafikskadelagen (1975:1410),
6. lag om ändring i lagen (1998:714) om ersättning vid frihetsberövanden och andra tvångsåtgärder,
7. lag om ändring i försäkringsavtalslagen (2005:104),
8. lag om ändring i brottsskadelagen (2014:322).
Därmed bifaller riksdagen proposition 2025/26:222 punkterna 1-8 och avslår motionerna
2025/26:4084 av Andreas Lennkvist Manriquez m.fl. (V) och
2025/26:4085 av Ulrika Westerlund m.fl. (MP).
Riksdag decision: Crime victims should be able to receive crime victim compensation in a simpler and faster manner, and the liability of guardians for damages caused by their children through criminal acts should be increased. The Riksdag approved the government's proposal.
The legal amendments include, among other things:
the crime victim's path to receiving crime victim compensation is simplified and shortened – the crime victim should be able to receive crime victim compensation directly from the Crime Victim Authority without first having to contact the perpetrator
the liability of guardians for damages caused by their children through criminal acts is increased
voluntary payment of crime victim compensation is facilitated.
The overall purpose of the legal amendments is to strengthen the position of crime victims and reduce the harmful effects of crime.
The legal amendments enter into force on 1 September 2026.
Counter-proposals
The counter-proposal wants to reject the government's proposal to increase parental liability for damages caused by crime. (V, MP) — Reservation 1