Finland's amended Secondary Use Act enters force, restructures permit routes

Finland's amendments to the Act on the Secondary Use of Health and Social Data entered into force on 1 May 2026. Applicants seeking data from multiple public data controllers can now choose whether to submit a single permit application centrally to Findata or separate applications to each controller, and clinical research is expressly excluded from the Act's scope. Finland operates the only fully mature Health Data Access Body (HDAB) function in the EU, and these amendments refine its model four years before EHDS secondary use provisions apply in March 2029. The Act will be amended again to implement EHDS Regulation 2025/327 — the changes now show how the most advanced national framework adapts rather than rebuilds.