People in Finland trust Supo

An overwhelming majority (90 per cent) of the public in Finland expressed either a high or at least fairly high degree of trust in Supo. Two respondents in five (40%) report a high degree of trust, with half of all respondents (50%) reporting a fairly high degree of trust.

Public confidence in Supo has remained at the same level as in previous years, with the latest findings ranked as the third best in more than two decades of such surveys. Only one respondent in a hundred does not trust Supo at all. Disparities between various groups remain quite minimal after adjusting the findings for various background variables, such as age, education, professional status and political views. The vast majority of people in all groups trust Supo.

The telephone interview survey also asked respondents to assess how well Supo had discharged its functions. Four respondents in five felt that Supo had managed its work either very well (19%) or fairly well (61%).

The same survey also includes an annual review of how well people living in Finland know the functions of Supo, which changed to some extent when new intelligence legislation took effect in summer 2019.

The best-known Supo functions are gathering intelligence on threats to national security, combating terrorism and preventing espionage targeting Finland. More than 90 per cent of respondents identified these Supo functions. A slight increase over the previous year was found in public awareness that Supo provides intelligence to the President, Government and public authorities (87%), and that it conducts security clearance vetting of key public appointees (83%).

As a new function of Supo, foreign intelligence was the least well known aspect of its work (71 per cent of respondents). There has been little change in survey findings since last year.

The survey was conducted by Verian (formerly Kantar). A total of 1,004 interviews were arranged, and the margin of error is ± 3.1 percentage points.

Trust in Supo:

• high 40%
• fairly high 50%
• no opinion 5%
• not very high 4%
• none at all 1%