For a variety of reasons, in the UK the ombudsman model of dispute resolution has become an increasingly mainstream provider of civil and administrative justice. The most recent set of pressures in this direction have come from the Government's drive to pursue low-cost and user-focussed solutions to various governance problems. Partial evidence for the added focus on ombudsman schemes can be found in the number of developments taking place in the field. This post takes a look at the important events that we can already be confident of occurring in 2016, and makes a few tentative predictions.
