JUSTICE welcomes the decision to reform and modernise the public service ombudsman system, which we have been advocating for over three decades.
Our influential report of 1961, The Citizen and the Administration, was credited as leading to the creation of the office of the Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration. Only a few years later, in 1969, in The Citizen and his Council, JUSTICE recommended the creation of what is now the Local Government Ombudsman. In 1977, a JUSTICE report, Our Fettered Ombudsman, recommended a series of reforms designed to maximise access to redress for administrative grievances, including many of those advocated by the current proposals, such as removal of the ‘MP filter’ and expansion of the Parliamentary Commissioner’s jurisdiction.
In addition to direct responses to the questions posed by the consultation, JUSTICE is also eager to ensure that the proposed recommendations consider the overarching issues of an integrated strategy for, and political and financial commitment to, principle-driven administrative justice reform.
JUSTICE consultation response on ‘A Public Service Ombudsman’