Presentation to MPs at a meeting organised by PHSO Pressure Group and the Patients Association, 23 February, 2016
I was recently invited to talk at an event aimed at making MPs aware that the Cabinet Office is planning to submit legislation to reform the ombudsman sector. This is the edited version of my talk: see also my earlier blog on the topic.
If I may start with a brief summary of my approach to this
topic. I have never been a user of ombudsman services, and am much more
knowledgeable of the dynamics of the sector from the perspective of the
ombudsman schemes themselves than I am from the complainant. I should also
declare several interests, including that I have on a couple of occasions
worked with two out of the three ombudsman offices that the Government is
currently proposing to merge. Most recently in a three man team that reviewed the
Local Government Ombudsman scheme in 2013.
Amongst other things – that report recommended an overhaul of the corporate
governance arrangements for the LGO and tentatively alluded to the idea that a
restructuring of the ombudsman sector was necessary.
My general standpoint is that they are potentially a strong
part of the solution to administrative justice. In amongst my previous work I
have regularly argued that the ombudsman sector needs to be upgraded. The
current proposed legislation for a Public
Sector Ombudsman scheme purports to do that.
I think that this proposed legislation is definitely a step in
the right direction. And I know a lot of people have put a lot of effort into
getting it this near to realisation. Potentially it may lay the foundations for
an ombudsman scheme that can be built up in the future – but as the proposal currently
stands I suspect that, unless Parliament intervenes, in 10 years time I will be
writing exactly the same things about the need for upgrading in the ombudsman
sector as I have already written.
I would like to focus on three themes. These are first, that if there have been
failings in the administrative justice system in recent years, frankly
Whitehall and Parliament need to take their fair share of responsibility.
Second, I would like to highlight two areas where genuinely reforming legislation
could make a real difference in terms of creating an ombudsman scheme for the
future that might give it more bite. Third, I would like to commend the
Government for including – or at least it looks like it will include –
provisions relating to the ongoing scrutiny of the new Public Service
Ombudsman. But, simultaneously I am hoping that when MPs scrutinise the
legislation it will pay careful attention to a series of crucial design
features of the new arrangements.
