This blog was originally posted on the website of the
UK Constitutional Law Association on 7 May 2014
The ombudsman enterprise in the UK is in a state of flux. The last
two years have witnessed a series of events that could revolutionise the
architecture and impact of the sector. Alternatively, in a year or so
time we could be talking about another missed opportunity in ombudsman
reform.
The big events that have briefly brought complaints systems to the
fore of public policy include the widely reported outrage at the
Mid-Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust, which the 2013
Francis report found occurred in part because of a culture in the NHS of failing to take complaints seriously. Picking up on this theme, the
Clwyd/Hart Report into NHS complaint-handling followed by the Public Administration Select Committee’s (PASC) twin inquiries into
complaints and
Parliament’s Ombudsman Service,
critiqued the complaints branch of the administrative justice system,
highlighting concerns about the poor service received by the user and
insufficient learning from complaints. Meanwhile, the
EU Directive on Alternative Dispute Resolution was passed in 2013 and is currently being consulted on by the
Department of Business, Innovation and Skills.
This Directive looks set to overhaul complaint-handling in the private
sector by requiring the Government to ensure that an ADR scheme is
available in all contractual disputes between a consumer and a business
(although neither consumer nor business will be obliged to use the
service).
This blog will not explore in detail any of these developments, but
will highlight the current potential for the ombudsman/ADR sector to be
redesigned to enhance its impact in the justice system and the
constitution.
