DSB's responsibilities include:
- National, regional and local security and emergency preparedness,
- Fire and electrical safety,
- Industrial and business safety,
- Dangerous substances and transport of dangerous goods,
- Critical telecommunications infrastructure for emergency and emergency response actors,
- Product and consumer safety,
- Offer operational support during crises within coordination, reinforcement and professional advice
- Follow up Norwegian interests and obligations in work in the area of societal security with international organisations such as the EU, the UN and NATO
- Agency management of the Civil Defence
Furthermore, the DSB has administrative responsibility for some laws and associated regulations:
- The Fire and Explosion Protection Act
- The Electricity Supervision Act
- Product Control Act
- Civil Protection Act
In addition, the Planning and Building Act and regulations lay down strong guidelines for the directorate's assignment.
DSB shall also support the Ministry's coordination role in civil protection and emergency preparedness, and lay the foundation for good and comprehensive preventive work and good preparedness preparations in public administration and socially critical activities.
DSB is responsible for ensuring that important societal functions have access to a safe, robust and up-to-date communication system for management and interaction in daily work and in the event of major incidents. The Directorate owns Nødnett and is responsible for its management and further development in line with the users' needs.
DSB's roles
Directorates can have several roles; professional adviser, implementer of adopted policy, administrator of legislation, telecommunications operator and practitioner of agency management:
The professional role includes acting as a professional adviser to the Ministry of Justice and Public Security and being a competence body for the justice and public security sector, other public bodies, voluntary organisations, the business sector and the general public. The professional role means that the DSB is responsible for monitoring conditions that affect society's emergency preparedness, and for compiling knowledge and experience and acting as a national standard-setter in our field of work.
The implementing role includes the ongoing implementation of adopted policies – on behalf of the Government and the Storting. This could be, for example, implementing action plans and campaigns, or providing grants in line with the objectives set by the Storting.
The administrative role means that the DSB, through delegation from the Ministry and through directly delegated authority, administers legislation within our area. We shall provide information and guidance on the regulations, supervise, deal with individual cases where authority has been granted or delegated, act as an appeals body in certain areas, issue regulations where we have been given the authority to do so and, on the basis of our experience, communicate any need for legislative amendments to the Ministry.
Agency management includes managing, organising and developing underlying/external agencies.
As a telecommunications operator , DSB is the owner and manager of Nødnett. We will have a cross-sectoral perspective with an emphasis on Nødnett as critical infrastructure, and contribute to the necessary coordination and transfer of expertise between and with the users of Nødnett. DSB shall ensure that Nødnett is used actively in daily and during crises, and so that everyone who has an emergency and emergency preparedness responsibility can become a user of Nødnett. We will ensure that Nødnett has good availability and stable, secure and cost-effective operations. We will follow up to ensure that users' Nødnett equipment has stable and secure operational support services, and that training of end-users ensures correct use of Nødnett.