Organisation

Our organisation has five Departments:

  • Chemicals Department
  • Industrial Department
  • Products Department
  • FINAS Finnish Accreditation Service
  • Department for Information and Development.

Tukes operates under several Ministries, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment being in charge of the ministerial governance and supervision. In addition, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment, the Ministry of Transport and Communications, the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, and the Ministry of the Environment collaborate to contribute to the governance in their respective sphere of operations.

Tukes's organisation chart, explained in text

Our permanent payroll strength is 250 person-years. The main offices are in Helsinki, Tampere and Rovaniemi.

The Chemicals Department attends to the enforcement tasks within chemical products surveillance, the European Union REACH and CLP Regulations, biocides legislation, and the risk assessment, approvals and registration of plant protection products. The Chemicals Department also supervises that articles of precious metals put up for sale in Finland are in conformity with the relevant requirements.

The Industrial Department attends to the surveillance of the safety of industrial plants and installations, mining, contracting and installation business, and inspection services. The surveillance objects include industrial plants handling dangerous chemicals, plants processing LPG and natural gas, explosives factories and storages, pressure equipment and industrial plants using the equipment, mines and ore prospecting and gold washing sites.  Our surveillance objects also include installation, use and inspection of electrical installations in distribution networks and buildings, and contracting and servicing of lifts. In addition, we monitor scales, fuel meters and liquid dispensers, and measuring instruments used at open-air marketplaces.

The Products Department supervises the safety and technical reliability of products brought up for sale. Among the surveillance objects are electrical products, consumer products, such as toys, machines and personal protection equipment, construction products, explosives and firework products, transport packages and containers for dangerous goods and rescue service equipment. Any product placed on the market must be safe and in conformity with requirements. The Products Department also supervises the safety of services provided for consumers in Finland. In addition to safety, we watch electromagnetic disturbance characteristics of electrical products, and energy efficiency and labelling of the equipment. The Fipoint Contact Point, operating within the Products Unit, coordinates cooperation between the authorities related to market surveillance in Finland (as the single liaison office), as well as acts as the Finnish product contact point, product contact point for construction and the contact point for information and communication systems used by the EU’s market surveillance authorities (ICSMS and the Safety Gateway, RAPEX).

FINAS Finnish Accreditation Service is the national accreditation body in Finland responsible for the accreditation according to the international criteria. FINAS provides accreditation services for testing and calibration laboratories, certification bodies, inspection bodies, providers of proficiency testing, and GHG and EMAS verifiers and biobanking. FINAS also attends to competence assessments based on requirements laid down by e.g. state authorities. FINAS is run as an independent and impartial Department within the Tukes organisation.

The Department for Information and Development provides administrative services for the Agency, participates in development of the legislation and working methods, and produces information services. Much of the information and experiences retrieved from surveillance and R&D is forwarded to our interest groups. The Department staff also take care of an active communications and training policy, aiming strongly at achieving our surveillance targets, in particular as to prevention of accidents.