Page 18 - The police annual report 2016 annual report 2016

18 THE POLICE, ANNUAL REPORT 2016
Already 61 per cent of passport applications were submitted electronically.
around 27 percentage points, compared to 2015. 26 per cent of all applications were submitted using the simpli ed application procedure. Around 36 per cent of identity card applications were submitted electronically.
Due to appointments and e-services, the police licence administration no longer had a summertime backlog.
CHANGES TO FIREARMS LEGISLATION
The Firearms Act reform was launched under the leadership of the Ministry of the Interior. The changes will help make the rearms licence process more exible than today, also enabling the use of e-services in rearms licence matters. However, the intention is to maintain rearms safety at the current level. At the same time, the National Police Board began the procurement of a new rearms information system. The purpose is that the rst phase of the system is deployed in December 2018.
Firearms licensing legislation was reformed
by a working group, but the Government proposal prepared on its work could not be submitted in 2016. The goal of the reform is to enable the use of e-services, a single-phase licence procedure and the lifecycle monitoring of rearms.
Additionally, the reform of the European Un- ion's rearms directive was underway, seeing its most active phase in the latter half of the year. The reform work will continue in 2017.
The regulation of the European Commission on the deactivation procedure of rearms came into effect in April. The approval of deac- tivations was centralised in the National Police Board's rearms administration.
NEW LICENCE DOCUMENTS INTRODUCED
In 2016, the National Police Board prepared the introduction of new passports, identity cards, residence permit cards and residence cards in cooperation with the Ministry for For- eign Affairs, the Finnish Immigration Service and the Population Register Centre. The new licence documents were brought into use on 1 January 2017.
The preparations for the adoption of the direct delivery of identity cards and the simpli ed procedure were ongoing at the same time.
CERTIFICATE ADMINISTRATION FOR PASSPORTS AND RESIDENCE PERMITS The police implemented an administration environment for the signature certi cates of passports and residence permits. The certif- icates ensure the authenticity of the docu- ments. With the administration environment, the police distribute certi cate data of Finnish passports and residence permits for the use of other countries, and processes and distrib- utes the certi cate data from other countries nationally for the use of the Finnish Border Guard, the police, the Finnish Immigration Service and Customs. n