Regional State Administrative Agency for Southern Finland

Basic Public Services, Legal Rights and Permits

• coordination and enforcement of social welfare and health care services
• promotion of public health
• licensing, registration and enforcement of private social welfare and health care service providers
• handling of complaints
• licensing of alcohol sales on and off premises, enforcement and prevention of alcohol-related problems  
• coordination and enforcement of veterinary medical care and animal welfare
• coordination, enforcement and evaluation of food safety
• competition enforcement and consumer protection
• coordination, enforcement and evaluation of health protection and tobacco control
• promotion of the social inclusion of Roma
• enforcement and registration of estate agents and letting agents  
• appointment of annual meeting conveners and auditors, decisions on special audits, deposits and safekeeping documents

The Division of Basic Public Services, Legal Rights and Permits of the Regional State Administrative Agency for Southern Finland has national oversight in the following areas:

• registration and enforcement relating to the fight against money laundering and terrorism
• registration and enforcement of bad debts
• pawnbroker licensing and enforcement
• licensing and enforcement of alcohol sales on board trains
• licensing of alcohol sales on and off premises by operators not established in Finland
• licensing, coordination and enforcement of animal testing  
• exemptions and enforcement relating to alien species
• consultancy, coordination and enforcement of web accessibility requirements

Education and Culture

• coordination of education and cultural services
• in-service training of teaching, early education, youth work, sports and library staff
• state aid towards youth work, sports and library initiatives
• promotion of students’ rights
• evaluation of the regional availability of health and social services

The Division of Education and Culture of the Regional State Administrative Agency for Southern Finland has national oversight in the following area:

• exemptions from teachers’ and head teachers’ qualification requirements under the Basic Education Act and the Act on General Upper Secondary Education and exemptions from head teachers’ qualification requirements under the Basic Art Education Act

Rescue Services and Preparedness

• enforcement of the availability and standard of rescue services
• handling of complaints relating to rescue services
• preparation of an annual expert assessment of rescue services for each wellbeing services county
• enforcement of external emergency plans and exercises
• coordination of regional contingency plans and emergency preparedness partnerships
• coordination of preparedness planning
• support for local authorities’ preparedness planning
• organisation of national defence courses and exercises
• promotion of regional and local safety and security planning
• regional security of supply
• opinions on rescue departments’ proposed infrastructure and equipment investments for the Fire Protection Fund
• coordination of nominations for Life Saving Medals

The Division of Rescue Services and Preparedness of the Regional State Administrative Agency for Southern Finland has national oversight in the following areas:

• licensing of shooting clubs
• secretarial services for the Life Saving Medal Committee

Environmental Permits

• licensing, compensations and administrative enforcement under the Water Act
• licensing, compensations and administrative enforcement under the Environmental Protection Act.

The Regional State Administrative Agency for Southern Finland also has jurisdiction over environmental and water permit issues in Southwestern Finland.

Occupational Safety and Health

• enforcement and development of occupational safety and health
• enforcement of the regulatory compliance of machinery, tools and personal protective equipment intended for professional use
• investigation of serious occupational accidents and occupational diseases
• administration of work-related licences and notices
• participation in court proceedings relating to criminal labour law

The Division of Occupational Safety and Health of the Regional State Administrative Agency for Southern Finland has national oversight in the following areas:

• enforcement of the contractor’s obligation to check
• coordination of the national occupational safety and health helpline

Administrative and Development Services

• human resources administration
• financial administration
• information management and development
• premises management and document management
• public relations
• general administration

Our Division of Administrative and Development Services is formally part of the Regional State Administrative Agency for Southern Finland, but it provides administrative services for all Regional State Administrative Agencies nationwide. There are administrative staff in all of our offices around the country.

Other duties

• general office management and secretarial services (Management Support)
• The Regional State Administrative Agency for Southern Finland also manages several national issues. 

Southern Finland has

 

• a population of approximately 2.3 million
• an area of approximately 34,000 square kilometres
• 62 local authorities, of which 24 are classed as towns or cities
• 12 sub-regions
• 5 regional councils
• 5 police departments
• 8 rescue departments
• 1 emergency response centre
• 5 hospital districts
• 3 Centres for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment
• approximately 155,000 jobs
• approximately 43% of all businesses in the country
• approximately 1.1 million workers
• 7 universities

 

 

We are also responsible for national duties across the country. Our national duties include

• registration and enforcement relating to the fight against money laundering and terrorism
• advice, guidance and enforcement of accessibility requirements for digital services
• preparation of a national expert assessment of rescue services
• coordination of the national occupational safety and health helpline.

Read more about our responsibilities in the Divisions section.

Regional State Administrative Agency for Southern Finland

• registration and enforcement relating to the fight against money laundering and terrorism
• consultancy, coordination and enforcement of web accessibility requirements
• preparation of a national expert assessment of rescue services
• coordination of the national occupational safety and health helpline

Regional State Administrative Agency for Eastern Finland

• licensing and enforcement relating to the Funeral Services Act and land register services
• state aid towards the maintenance of Finnish cemeteries in the ceded territory and war graves of the displaced population as well as maintenance of graves of Russian prisoners of war

Regional State Administrative Agency for Lapland

• upholding the Sámi language
• enforcement of the Reindeer Husbandry Act
• reindeer meat control and enforcement
• recovery of aid under the Act Repealing the Act on the Regeneration of Lapland’s Low-yielding Forests

Regional State Administrative Agency for Southwestern Finland

• administration of state grants for social welfare and health services development projects
• administration and supervision of state aid for rescue services
• internal audits of Regional State Administrative Agencies.

Regional State Administrative Agency for Western and Inland Finland

• lost property offices
• education in Swedish
• research and development projects in the construction of sports facilities
• joint administration of rental houses and right-of-residence housing
• confirmation of the statutes of joint property management associations.

Regional State Administrative Agency for Northern Finland

• coordination and enforcement of health care services for prisoners and the armed forces
• aerial forest fire surveillance
• nationwide occupational safety and health communications

Regional State Administrative Agency for Southern Finland – head office

Postal address: P.O. Box 1, 13035 AVI, Finland

Please send your letter to the P.O. Box of the Regional State Administrative Agency for Southern Finland (not the visiting address). Please address the letter only to the Regional State Administrative Agency (post with an official's name will cause delays in the processing of your matter).

Visiting address: Wähäjärvenkatu 6, Hämeenlinna

[email protected]
Telephone: +358 (0)29 501 6000
Fax: +358 (0)29 501 6661
Office hours: Monday–Friday, 8.00 am – 4.15 pm

• Administrative matters (e.g. enquiries, complaints, appeals): please contact our registry at [email protected] to submit official documents, have them entered into our case management system and find out about the competent authority in each case.
• Occupational Safety and Health: [email protected]
• Environmental Permits: [email protected]
• Communications: head of comminication [email protected], head of communication in environmental issues [email protected].

Please only send documents containing confidential or otherwise sensitive information via secure email. The maximum size of emails including attachments is 50 MB. Larger files should be compressed or sent in multiple emails. Please remember that any information sent to us by email is at the sender’s risk.

Send secure email

Contact information of the staff

Personnel search (in Finnish)

Helsinki office

Postal address: P.O. Box 1, 13035 AVI, Finland

Please send your letter to the P.O. Box of the Regional State Administrative Agency for Southern Finland (not to the visiting address). Please address the letter only to the Regional State Administrative Agency (post with an official's name will cause delays in the processing of your matter).

Visiting address: Ratapihantie 9, Helsinki
Fax: +358 (0)29 501 6661

Kouvola office

Postal address: P.O. Box 1, 13035 AVI, Finland

Please send your letter to the P.O. Box of the Regional State Administrative Agency for Southern Finland (not to the visiting address). Please address the letter only to the Regional State Administrative Agency (post with an official's name will cause delays in the processing of your matter).

Visiting address: Valimontie 5, Kouvola
Fax: +358 (0)29 501 6661

Please make an appointment in advance with the person you wish to see. 

Visits to the Kouvola office as of 1 January 2021

As of 1 January 2021, the customer service of the Kouvola office will be located in the service desk of the Centre for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment in Salpakeskus (address Salpausselänkatu 22). 
Customer meetings at the regional state administrative agency's customer premises are arranged in advance by appointment:

• by telephone 0295 016 000 (exchange)
• by e-mail with the expert responsible for the matter at hand (contact details can be obtained from the exchange, if necessary).

Environmental Permits

Hämeenlinna head office
Division of Environmental Permits

Postal address: P.O. Box 1, 13035 AVI, Finland

Please send your letter to the P.O. Box of the Regional State Administrative Agency for Southern Finland (not to the visiting address). Please address the letter only to the Regional State Administrative Agency (post with an official's name will cause delays in the processing of your matter).

Visiting address: Wähäjärvenkatu 6, Hämeenlinna
Fax: +358 (0)29 501 6661

Helsinki office
Division of Environmental Permits

Postal address: P.O. Box 1, 13035 AVI, Finland

Please send your letter to the P.O. Box of the Regional State Administrative Agency for Southern Finland (not to the visiting address). Please address the letter only to the Regional State Administrative Agency (post with an official's name will cause delays in the processing of your matter).

Visiting address: Ratapihantie 9, Helsinki

Turku office
Postal address: P.O. Box 4, 13035 AVI, Finland (unofficial correspondence only)
Visiting address: Itsenäisyydenaukio 2, Turku

Occupational Safety and Health

We serve customers by phone through a national telephone service tel. 0295 016 620 and by email at [email protected].

For the full contact details of occupational safety and health authorities, visit the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s website.

Our email format is [email protected]. For general enquiries, please use our generic email addresses. Your email will then be forwarded to the competent person in our organisation.

Director-General Merja Ekqvist
Management Assistant Taina Kemppi, tel. +358 (0)29 501 6051

Basic Public Services, Legal Rights and Permits

• Director Riku-Matti Lehikoinen, tel. +358 (0)29 501 6155
• Head of Alcohol Licensing Samuel Haataja, tel. +358 (0)29 501 6111
• Head of Trade Supervision Unit Ilkka Heikkilä, tel. +358 (0)29 501 6081
• Head of Legality Esa Tommiska, tel. +358 (0)295 016 213
• Head of Social Welfare and Health Care Complaints Meiju Heikkinen, tel. +358 (0)295 016 382
• Head of Registration of Health and Social Services Mikko Floréen, tel. +358 (0)295 016 484
• Head of Supervision of Social Welfare and Health Care Niina Oresmaa, tel. +358 (0)295 016 356
• Head of Wellbeing, Health and Safety Anne Hiiri, tel. +358 (0)295 016 067
• Head of Environmental Health Tanja Häkkinen, tel. +358 (0)295 016 464
• Head of Accessibility Enforcement Sanna Sinisalo, tel. +358 (0)295 016 687

Rescue Services and Preparedness

• Director Esa-Pentti Lukkarinen, tel. +358 (0)29 501 6089 
• Deputy Director, Head of the Preparedness Unit Esa-Pentti Lukkarinen, tel. +358 (0)29 501 6089 
• Senior Officer, Rescue Services, Head of the Rescue Services Unit Mira Leinonen, tel. +358 (0)29 501 6572
• Senior Planning Officer Riikka Sivunen, tel. +358 (0)29 501 6139

Environmental Permits

• Director Teemu Lehikoinen, tel. +358 (0)29 501 6415
• Head of Environmental Protection Anna Laiho, tel. +358 (0)29 501 6368
• Head of Water Management Maria Kukonlehto, tel. +358 (0)29 501 6214
• Head of Support Services Malin Kuurberg, tel. +358 (0)29 501 6411
• [email protected]

Education and Culture

• Director Marja-Liisa Keski-Rauska, tel. +358 (0)29 501 8815
• Planning Officer Kirsi Pekkanen, tel. +358 (0)29 501 6557
• Head of Education Satu Kilpinen, tel. +358 (0)29 501 6194
• Head of Culture Kristian Åbacka, tel. +358 (0)29 501 6537

Occupational Safety and Health

• Director Eerik Tarnaala, tel. +358 (0)29 501 6370
• [email protected]
• Media enquiries: tel. +358 (0)29 501 6833, email [email protected]

Administrative and Development Services

• Director Henrika Räsänen

Communications

• Head of communications Tiia Tiesmäki, tel. +358 (0)29 501 6131
• Head of communications (Environmental Permits) Tiina Strand, +358 (0)29 501 8837

You can use the personnel search to find the contact information of our staff.
Personnel search

We only accept e-invoices. Send your invoice via Posti Messaging, the e-invoicing operator used by central government. Make sure that your invoice meets the European standard for e-invoicing. You can send attachments with your e-invoice in PDF format.

Operator ID (Posti Messaging Oy): FI28768767
EDI ID: 00371094544636101
PEPPOL address: 0216:00371094544636101
Business ID: 1094544-6
VAT code: FI10945446
Invoice reference details: details provided by the client

Make sure that the invoice contains all reference information provided by the client (at least the business unit ID and the client’s name). This speeds up the processing of the invoice. Payment term is 21 days in accordance with the general terms of public procurement in service and supply contracts.

We do not accept invoices sent by email or on paper because they are not e-invoices (Act 241/2019). Make sure that your invoice contains all the information required under the Value Added Tax Act. We do not pay inaccurate or incomplete invoices and will return them to the sender unpaid.

If you do not have any system to produce e-invoices, you can use the Handi supplier portal or Basware Portal provided by central government to prepare and send e-invoices. 

Central government supplier portals for sending e-invoices and instructions for using the portals can be found on the State Treasury’s website (valtiokonttori.fi)

Act on Electronic Invoicing 241/2019 (finlex.fi; the page is in Finnish)

VAT invoice requirements (vero.fi)

General Terms of Public Procurement in Service and Supply Contracts (vm.fi)

For questions about the use of the Handi supplier portal, contact the Finnish Government Shared Services Centre for Finance and HR (Palkeet). Palkeet customer support (8.00–16.15) tel. +358 (0)2955 64060 and email [email protected].