Government situation awareness, preparedness and security

The Prime Minister’s Office is responsible for government situation awareness, preparedness and security services and coordinates the management of different incidents and emergencies.

Keeping decision-makers abreast of developments is part of the general management of situation awareness.  

The Government, ministries and competent authorities are responsible for preparedness related to comprehensive security, incident management and running of operations. These functions are managed on the basis of a normal mandate under existing statutory powers.

The Prime Minister’s Office coordinates the management of different incidents and emergencies and the related government communications.

Ministerial committee, meetings of Permanent Secretaries, meetings of the Heads of Preparedness, and other permanent inter-ministerial cooperation bodies may participate in the preparations to manage incidents. Depending on the kind of incident, the Security Committee may also be consulted. The Security Committee is not, however, responsible for the management or steering of incidents and emergencies.

Meeting of Heads of Preparedness

The Heads of Preparedness coordinate the  measures between the ministries in all security situations. The meetings of the Heads of Preparedness are chaired by the Head of Preparedness of the Government. 

Each ministry has a Head of Preparedness, a Preparedness Committee and a Preparedness Secretary.

Situation Centre

Decision-makers and leaders at all levels need access to information that is correct; the competent authority's understanding of what has happened; information on factors that have influenced the event; and an assessment of possible paths to pursue in the situation. The competent authority is responsible for operative management and the situation picture.

The Prime Minister's Office has the strategic task of maintaining the situation awareness of the Government. The Prime Minister's Office houses the Government Situation Centre which produces real-time reports and situation picture on the basis of information provided by the competent authorities.

In short, it combines information from the authorities and open sources of information and reports to the Government and other authorities on this basis. The Situation Centre acts as Finland's national contact point for the European Union in a manner specified separately elsewhere.