Contact
The Legal Affairs Unit can be reached at juridik@slu.se.
For questions on personal data, GDPR and related issues, please contact dataskydd@slu.se.
Personal data breaches must be reported through the IA system.
Information about the SLU whistleblowing function
Last changed: 09 November 2023
The whistleblowing function is part of SLU’s work against corruption and irregularities. As somebody who works at SLU, this is what you can do to report irregularities.
Employees, volunteers, students on placement or those otherwise working under the instruction and supervision of SLU are all considered to be working at the university.
The purpose of the whistleblowing function is to address irregularities that may be of public interest. This may include corruption, product safety, environmental protection, food and feed safety or animal health and wellbeing. It is not intended as a way to report general dissatisfaction or other issues related to your own work or employment conditions. To be protected, you must also have reasonable grounds to believe that the information about the irregularity was true at the time you reported it.
The whistleblowing function is a complement to other methods of reporting irregularities. You can still turn to your line manager, union, HR or other division depending on what the matter concerns.
You can blow the whistle in one of the following ways:
- Online form (further down on this page)
- Via email to visselblasning@slu.se
- Send a letter to SLU, Box 7070, 750 07 Uppsala, or submit physical documentation to the registrar’s post box. Mark the envelope “Visselblåsning”
- Call 018 67 10 00 and ask to speak to the whistleblowing function or Legal Affairs Unit
- Through a meeting. Book the meeting via one of the above means of contact. The meeting will then take place once a time and suitable location has been agreed.
The Legal Affairs Unit currently handle the SLU whistleblowing function. This means that somebody from the Legal Affairs Unit will receive the report, respond and be in contact with the person who has submitted it. Reports that are found to fall under the Whistleblowing Act (2021:890) will be investigated. The Legal Affairs Unit will ensure that the case is passed on to the right section of SLU and that the necessary resources are allocated to address the irregularity.
Cases received by the whistleblowing function will be registered, making them official documents. This means anyone can request to access them. However, the following provisions in the Public Access to Information and Secrecy Act (OSL) will apply:
- The person reporting will be protected by absolute secrecy (Chapter 32, Section 3b, OSL).
- Secrecy will also apply to any information that may reveal the identity of an individual other than the person reporting, if revealing this information will have a detrimental impact on the process (Chapter 17, Section 3b OSL).
The Whistleblowing Act protects people who report irregularities from reprisals. SLU may not take action against a whilstleblower or a person with links to them.
There are several other forms of protection in addition to that of the Whistleblowing Act. The freedom to disclose information is protected in the Swedish constitution. It enables all public sector employees to provide the mass media with information without fear of reprisal. This includes the freedom for anyone to acquire information with a view to having it published, the prohibition of investigation where by public authorities may not investigated who distributed the information in line with the freedom to disclose. Finally, there is a prohibition against reprisals which forbids employers from punishing anyone who has utilised their freedom to disclose information. Labour laws also offer protection, as an employer must have objective grounds to dismiss an employee.
The law states that SLU must process personal data when working with reports submitted in line with the Whistleblowing Act. SLU is the data controller for processing personal data that will be included in the available reporting channels and in the event of any investigation taking place based on the report. Read more about how SLU processes personal data here.