Activities of the National Steering Group for Public Events made permanent
In 2020, the National Police Board set up a steering group specialising in event safety at public events, which was tasked with improving information flow related to public events between the authorities. Since 1 April 2025, the activities of the steering group have been made permanent due, among other things, to the large number of events and their increased size.
The steering group has 24 members representing various authorities across Finland. Besides the police, there are a broad spectrum of representatives of the health and rescue services, as well as the Finnish Safety and Chemicals Agency (TUKES). The key objective of the steering group is to promote regional equality between different event organisers and to draw up letters of guidance concerning different authorities.
Safety of public events is a broad concept
Tens of thousands of public events are held in Finland every year. Public events refer to amusement events, competitions, displays and other similar events that are open to the public. The organiser of a public event must ensure that the law is complied with at the event. It is important that event organisers take care of their statutory obligations in terms of maintaining order, rescue safety and first aid preparedness, for example.
Society has a duty to ensure and safeguard freedom of assembly and overall security during events. Comprehensive security means that a public event is carried out in such a way that safety is maintained during the events also outside the venue of the public event. Comprehensive security is a broad concept, and ensuring it requires seamless cooperation between different authorities and event organisers.
Steering group issues recommendations
The key task of the steering group is to issue letters of recommendation to various authorities on matters related to event safety. These are intended to harmonise official practices in Finland. Letters of recommendation are public and are published on the poliisi.fi website.
