Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman
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The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman comprises the offices of the Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration (PCA) and the Health Service Commissioner for England (HSC). It is the official ombudsman institution responsible for investigating complaints regarding whether governmental departments, agencies and some other public bodies in the United Kingdom, and the National Health Service (NHS) in England, have acted properly or fairly, or have provided poor service. The Ombudsman's offices are in Millbank Tower, London.
The posts of Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman are attached to the Westminster Parliament, with additional posts at the Scottish Parliament, the Welsh Assembly and other government institutions.
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[edit] About UK Ombudsman Services
The creation of the post of the Parliamentary Ombudsman was spurred on by the 1954 Crichel Down affair and by the activism of pressure groups, including the Society for Individual Freedom. The position was created, and his or her powers are documented in, the Parliamentary Commissioner Act of 1967, the most notable section of which is s4 and Schedule 2, which constrain the powers of the incumbent ombudsman. Amongst other things, the ombudsman cannot investigate crime, national security, foreign affairs, the armed forces and other civil services. The position of HSC was created later, under the Health Service Commissioners Act 1993. The office of the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman emphasises that it looks into complaints "that government departments, their agencies and some other public bodies in the UK - and the NHS in England - have not acted properly or fairly or have provided a poor service." The first UK Ombudsman was Sir Edmund Compton who had previously been the Comptroller-General. He was succeeded by Sir Alan Marre, a career civil servant. He was the first Ombudsman appointed for the National Health Service and combined that role with that of the Parliamentary Ombudsman as have all his successors. He later became chairman of Age Concern and the post is currently held by Ann Abraham (since 2002). She is a former director of the National Association of Citizen's Advice Bureaux.
[edit] The Ombudsman's process
Those seeking the assistance of the PCA generally find the process to be difficult. Firstly, all complaints have to go through a Member of Parliament (MP); this is known as the 'MP filter', which checks the legitimacy of complaints. In many cases, an MP attempts to solve the problem themselves, though the effectiveness of this can be called into question. Secondly, the Ombudsman rejects nearly 50% of his received applications (once that have passed through the filter) at first instance. Finally, the ombudsman will not investigate complaints where recourse to an alternate remedy (tribunal, internal complaints etc) exists. This can be extremely offputting for complainants, most of whom do not want to get involved in this process. If a complainant can plough through all this, complaint resolution normally takes about 40 weeks.
Putting a complaint to the HSC is simpler in that no MP filter is operated. However, it is generally expected that complaints have been first put to the NHS body complained about. Following that is the "independent review" stage of the complaints process. This formerly took the form of a three-person independent panel usually convened by a non-executive NHS Trust director. The responsibility for this stage of the procedure was taken over in 2004 by the Healthcare Commission. The HSC is the third and final (non-judicial) port of call for complainants.
[edit] The Ombudsman's powers
The Ombudsman's powers are completely non-binding upon any authority. He or she may publish a report, but that is all the coercion he can assert, relying instead upon credibility. Usually, this does exert sufficient moral influence to make an authority change its decision. The Ombudsman does not exist to complain about the merits of a decision. For example, in 1996 those suffering 'planning blight' on their houses due to the creation of the Channel Tunnel were eventually awarded compensation without admission of fault or liability.
Finally, the Ombudsman's decision may be challenged by judicial review if there is deemed to be a failure on the Ombudsman's part to consider whether the complaint is suitable for judicial resolution. This happens rarely, but does occur. For example, in R v PCA, Ex Parte Dyer [1994], a complaint was addressed, but the plaintiff considered the remedy inadequate. The House of Lords, however, ruled that the plaintiff should be satisfied with the remedy obtained.
[edit] Criticism
The impartiality of some UK Ombudsman services has been questioned.
[edit] External link
- Ombudsman.org.uk - 'Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman' (official site)
