There are time limits for making a Service complaint and also for making an application to my office. These time limits are set in law. Complaints that are made outside of those time limits can still be accepted if it considered “just and equitable”. But what does that actually mean?
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No, it isn’t the start of a good joke! The question of whether an organisation has enough staff to deliver their core objectives is one that is common to most sectors, including the ombudsman community. As many of you will have seen from our recent communications, including the Annual Report, we don’t currently have enough staff to meet our published time targets. While this is an issue we are working to rectify as quickly as we can, I thought I would use my second blog this month to explore this issue further.
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The role of an Ombudsman is not only to carry out investigations but to make recommendations. In addition to the recommendations I make each year in my Annual Report, I have the power to make recommendations in individual cases as part of my findings. In this blog I will be explaining more about this particular […]
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We talk a lot about how the decisions I make as the Service Complaints Ombudsman are binding and can only be challenged by Judicial Review, but what does that mean? In this blog I will be looking at why the legislation requires my decisions to be binding and what Judicial Review is all about. When […]
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This week marks the second year of the Office of the Service Complaints Ombudsman and our 1st birthday! I thought it only fitting to use my first blog of the year to at the year ahead and what I hope to achieve in 2017. Our office reopened Tuesday after the Christmas break and we are already […]
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As we approach the Christmas season we also come to the end of the first year of my term and also the very first year of the Office of the Service Complaints Ombudsman. Although our official year-end statistics won’t be released until the New Year, I thought it only appropriate to use my final blog […]
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One of my powers as the Service Complaints Ombudsman for the Armed Forces is to review decisions made by the chain of command to not accept a complaint for investigation. In the first 9 months my office has upheld 53% of reviews of this type in favour of the complainant. In some instances it isn’t […]
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Our investigations team are taking over the Ombudsman’s blog this week to tell you about what they do and to answer the 4 most commonly asked questions about investigations. Many people who make an application to the Ombudsman asking for an investigation think that the Ombudsman will deal with their matter personally. Given the large […]
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Earlier this month I posted the first of a two-part blog on redress – an issue that is of particular concern to individuals who contact my office. While the first part looked at the broad issue of redress – what it is and the different types of redress – the second part looks at the […]
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What happens at the end of an investigation if the Ombudsman finds in my favour? What is redress, does it just mean compensation? What type of redress will I be given? Can the Ombudsman pay me compensation? Can the Ombudsman force the Services to follow her recommendations? These are all questions that my team are […]
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