Government names preferred candidate for next Local Government Ombudsman 

Amerdeep Somal has been confirmed as the Government's preferred candidate to be the next Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO).

She will undergo a pre-appointment scrutiny hearing by the Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Select Committee on 18 September before being confirmed by Royal Warrant later this year.

Once confirmed, she will replace the interim Ombudsman, Paul Najsarek who is scheduled to leave in January 2024.

Somal is currently the Complaints Commissioner and Chief Executive Officer at the Financial Regulators and Chief Commissioner at the Data and Marketing Commission.

She has spent almost 20 years sitting as a Judge of the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal. She also sits on the board of the Parliamentary Health Service Ombudsman.

Somal is scheduled to become Board Chair of the Law Society in January 2024, alongside her appointment as Ombudsman.

Commenting on her provisional appointment, Somal said: "The Ombudsman has a vital role both in ensuring that individual complaints are investigated – and wrongdoing put right – and in being a central part of the wider system that brings about fundamental change and improvement in these essential services.

"I look forward to taking on the Ombudsman position which helps to improve the quality of life for so many people, including some of society's most vulnerable." 

Paul Najsarek, the current interim Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, will remain in post as Ombudsman and Chair of the Commission for Local Administration in England (the board that runs the LGSCO) until January 2024.

Adam Carey