Welsh Ombudsman looks for power to investigate complaints even where complainant has legal remedy

The Public Services Ombudsman (Wales) is to ask for powers to allow it to consider complaints even when the issues could be considered by the courts.

It is at present barred from pursuing such cases but has argued in a submission to a review of its work by the Senedd finance committee that this change would “enable us to better serve the people of Wales”. It would also be in line with Law Commission recommendations.

In evidence it argued: “The existence of the statutory bar in the Act means that, even when we decide that a complaint has merit and meets our threshold for investigation, we must decline to accept a case for investigation if it appears that the complainant has, or had, a legal remedy available to them.

“We believe that removing this bar, in line with the Law Commission’s recommendation, would further strengthen public confidence in our office and lead to greater access to justice for citizens in Wales.”

It will also press the committee to recommend that complaints about schools and governing body decisions should be brought into its jurisdiction.

Although the Office of the Independent Adjudicator considers complaints about further and higher education in Wales, no equivalent existed for complaints about schools and governing body decisions, which were the only public services to fall outside the remit of any independent complaint handling body, bringing “a significant gap in how parents and pupils can access administrative justice in Wales, beyond local complaint handling procedures”.

The ombudsman service also wants a simpler process for launching wider investigations on its own initiative and powers to issue sector-wide statutory recommendations following such probes.

It said in evidence to the committee that since starting work in April 2019, it had handled more than15,000 complaints about public services and “delivered justice” for just over 2,900 people, either by resolving their complaint early or by upholding their complaint after investigation. It also issued more than 7,600 recommendations to public service providers.

Mark Smulian