The long queues at the security checkpoint at Arlanda Airport outside Stockholm have meant that several travelers miss their holiday flights. The reason for the chaos is that the company Avarn Security has not been able to recruit enough staff, at the same time as air travel has increased after the spread of covid-19 has decreased.
Anyone employed within the security check at Arlanda must undergo a security check, which includes a register check carried out by the Security Police.
The industry association Säkerhetsföretagen claims that Säpo’s register control at the appointments took too long and contributed to the problems.
– The problem is the processing times. It should be possible to handle this with resource allocation or streamlining within the authority, says Li Jansson, head of industry and business policy at Säkerhetsföretagen.
So what have the processing times really looked like? From the turn of the year until March this year, Säpo has had longer processing times than normal for register checks. The processing times have been up to six weeks and during certain periods up to eight weeks.
According to Fredrik Hultgren-Friberg, press spokesperson at Säpo, there have been several reasons for the longer times.
– It was because we have had vacancies among staff who handle the register checks. It was also because we were in a pandemic. In addition, we switched to a new IT support for the management of the register controls. This required a run-in period and there were also some childhood illnesses in the IT support, he says.
Fredrik Hultgren-Friberg explains that the times for processing during the month of March returned to normal, which is about three weeks.
Is it possible to do faster processing?
– At present, we estimate that approximately three weeks is the processing time that is reasonable. These are privacy-sensitive issues and we do not have the opportunity to depress those times so much more without risking the rule of law in the processes. This is a business where things must not go wrong, he says.
Swedish citizenship is required in some cases
● The security testing is different in detail, depending on the security class of the service. There are three security classes and in the highest – security class 1 – there are employees who “as a result of their participation in the business have the opportunity to cause extremely serious damage to Sweden’s security.”
● For the two highest security classes, a special personal investigation is made and then Swedish citizenship is also required to be able to be employed by a state authority, region or municipality.
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In recent years, there has been a tightening of legislation for security protection and since 2021, for example, an authority that does not handle security protection can be punished with a fine.
Another change is that employment in aviation security since 2019 has been placed in safety class.
Airport personnel must therefore be security tested.
– The staff is also employed in authorized security companies. Then they are tested via that company and via the Swedish Transport Agency. And then a check is made via Säpo. So there are many chefs, says Li Jansson.
She says that she is positive about the new, stricter rules, but believes that due to the administration, Säpo’s processing times need to be reduced.
According to Fredrik Hultgren-Friberg, the processing would not be faster with greater resources.
– There is nothing to solve the situation with here and now. There are built-in time aspects in this that can not be speeded up just because you add more resources. The most important thing to ultimately have shorter processing times is the intensive digitization of the system that is now underway. When it is fully implemented, we will most likely have more stable handling and shorter processing times.
The number of register controls in Sweden has not increased significantly despite the tightened legislation. Last year, the Security Police carried out just over 135,000 register checks, which according to Fredrik Hultgren-Friberg is approximately the same figures as before the amendments to the law.
The processing times have also not changed and have been around three weeks in recent years, even before the tightening of the law.
The security checks are done preventively to protect against crimes that may threaten Sweden’s security, such as espionage and sabotage.
The so-called operator – usually an authority or a company – conducts a security assessment based on an interview with a potential employee. You simply want to opt out of people who are not reliable or who have vulnerabilities that can be exploited in sensitive activities. It can, for example, be about debts or drug abuse.
Part of the security check is thus the Security Police’s register check.
– Beats are made in, among other things, the charge and suspicion register. Other inspections can also occur, says Fredrik Hultgren-Friberg.
Regardless of what the register check shows, it is always the employer who ultimately decides whether a person should be employed or not.
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