Local Government Ombudsman
Encyclopedia
A Local Government Ombudsman is an official employed by the Commission for Local Administration in England (CLAE or CLA), a body of commissioners established under the Local Government Act 1974 to investigate complaints about councils and certain other bodies in England
. Each of three Local Government Ombudsmen is responsible for conducting investigations in one of three areas. Similar duties are carried out by the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales
, the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman
and the Northern Ireland Ombudsman
.
Wikipedia policy prohibits reference to sources critical of the LGO as "not reliable".
that have caused injustice to the complainant. All council services can be investigated including housing, planning, education, social services, council tax, housing benefit and highways. A Local Government Ombudsman provides dispute resolution
services free of charge to the complainants; as the 2009 fiscal year, the service cost approximately £16 million per annum. An LGO will usually only become involved after a council's complaints procedure has been exhausted.
The stated objective of the Local Government Ombudsman is to secure satisfactory redress for complainants and better administration for local authorities. In addition LGOs may issue advice on good administrative practice in local government based on experience from prior investigations and also offer training in complaint handling to councils.
Although it will hear complaints of maladministration stemming from the actions of individual councillors and council employees, the service can only seek to remedy the injustice and cannot discipline the person responsible. Complaints about the conduct of individual councillors can be made to the Standards Board for England
, which can apply disciplinary sanctions but does not provide redress for complainants. Unless they are also members of a professional body, such as the Law Society
, individual officers can only be disciplined by their employer. The Local Government Ombudsman does not have an explicit duty to report criminal conduct by councils discovered in the course of an investigation to the law enforcement, and there are no known prosecutions or convictions resulting from the work of the Local Government Ombudsman.
In 1995, a review conducted by Geoffrey Chipperfield, working for the Secretary of State of the Environment, recommended abolition of the Local Government Ombudsman on the grounds that it would not be able to handle the increasing volume of local government complaints effectively. Chipperfield recommended that all stages of a complaint, including external review, should be carried out locally. The government, however, declined to act on the report, stating that they believed that the CLA continued to be necessary, and that though local complaint systems were important, it wasn't necessary to create new statue mandating and maintaining such systems.
In 2007, then Prime Minister Gordon Brown
stated, during a House of Commons debate on Constitutional reform, that he believed that the House of Commons should have more authority over the selection of "public officials whose role it is to protect the public's rights and interests, and for whom there is not currently independent scrutiny. That includes...the local government ombudsman...".
Territories formerly handled by Tony Redmond, who handled complaints from North London
, Buckinghamshire
, Berkshire
, Hertfordshire
, Essex
, Kent
, Surrey
, Suffolk
, and Sussex
, are currently being divided between Martin and Seex following Redmond's November 2010 retirement.
One risk of taking a complaint to the Local Government Omdudsman is that the complainant may run out of time to seek judicial review of a council's decision, missing the opportunity to raise the original matter in court. Judicial review must be sought within three months in the UK whereas only 54% of 2004/5 Ombudsman cases were determined within this time.
The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister is charged with receiving complaints about the Local Government Ombudsman but does not know how many and does not act upon them.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. Each of three Local Government Ombudsmen is responsible for conducting investigations in one of three areas. Similar duties are carried out by the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales
Public Services Ombudsman for Wales
The Public Services Ombudsman for Wales was established by of the Public Services Ombudsman Act 2005...
, the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman
Scottish Public Services Ombudsman
The Scottish Public Services Ombudsman was set up in 2002 as a 'one-stop-shop'. It replaced three previous offices - the Scottish Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman, the Local Government Ombudsman for Scotland and the Housing Association Ombudsman for Scotland...
and the Northern Ireland Ombudsman
Northern Ireland Ombudsman
The Northern Ireland Ombudsman combines two official offices, the Assembly Ombudsman for Northern Ireland and the Northern Ireland Commissioner for Complaints....
.
Wikipedia policy prohibits reference to sources critical of the LGO as "not reliable".
Duties
A Local Government Ombudsman (LGO) investigates allegations of maladministrationMaladministration
Maladministration is a political term which describes the actions of a government body which can be seen as causing an injustice.The law in the United Kingdom says Ombudsman must investigate ‘maladministration’...
that have caused injustice to the complainant. All council services can be investigated including housing, planning, education, social services, council tax, housing benefit and highways. A Local Government Ombudsman provides dispute resolution
Dispute resolution
Dispute resolution is the process of resolving disputes between parties.-Methods:Methods of dispute resolution include:* lawsuits * arbitration* collaborative law* mediation* conciliation* many types of negotiation* facilitation...
services free of charge to the complainants; as the 2009 fiscal year, the service cost approximately £16 million per annum. An LGO will usually only become involved after a council's complaints procedure has been exhausted.
The stated objective of the Local Government Ombudsman is to secure satisfactory redress for complainants and better administration for local authorities. In addition LGOs may issue advice on good administrative practice in local government based on experience from prior investigations and also offer training in complaint handling to councils.
Although it will hear complaints of maladministration stemming from the actions of individual councillors and council employees, the service can only seek to remedy the injustice and cannot discipline the person responsible. Complaints about the conduct of individual councillors can be made to the Standards Board for England
Standards Board for England
Standards for England, formerly known as the Standards Board for England, is a non-departmental public body sponsored by the Department for Communities and Local Government. Established following the Local Government Act 2000, it is responsible for promoting high ethical standards in local democracy...
, which can apply disciplinary sanctions but does not provide redress for complainants. Unless they are also members of a professional body, such as the Law Society
Law society
A Law Society in current and former Commonwealth jurisdictions was historically an association of solicitors with a regulatory role that included the right to supervise the training, qualifications and conduct of lawyers/solicitors...
, individual officers can only be disciplined by their employer. The Local Government Ombudsman does not have an explicit duty to report criminal conduct by councils discovered in the course of an investigation to the law enforcement, and there are no known prosecutions or convictions resulting from the work of the Local Government Ombudsman.
History
The LGO positions were created as a result of the Local Government Act 1974, which was amended by the Regulatory Reform Order 2007 No 1889 and The Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act.In 1995, a review conducted by Geoffrey Chipperfield, working for the Secretary of State of the Environment, recommended abolition of the Local Government Ombudsman on the grounds that it would not be able to handle the increasing volume of local government complaints effectively. Chipperfield recommended that all stages of a complaint, including external review, should be carried out locally. The government, however, declined to act on the report, stating that they believed that the CLA continued to be necessary, and that though local complaint systems were important, it wasn't necessary to create new statue mandating and maintaining such systems.
In 2007, then Prime Minister Gordon Brown
Gordon Brown
James Gordon Brown is a British Labour Party politician who was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 until 2010. He previously served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Labour Government from 1997 to 2007...
stated, during a House of Commons debate on Constitutional reform, that he believed that the House of Commons should have more authority over the selection of "public officials whose role it is to protect the public's rights and interests, and for whom there is not currently independent scrutiny. That includes...the local government ombudsman...".
Current Local Government Ombudsmen
As of April 2011, the current LGO are:- Jane Martin handles complaints about ManchesterManchesterManchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
, YorkYorkYork is a walled city, situated at the confluence of the Rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. The city has a rich heritage and has provided the backdrop to major political events throughout much of its two millennia of existence...
, Trafford BC, High Peak BC and the southern boroughs of LondonLondonLondon is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
.
- Anne Seex (Chief Executive of NorwichNorwichNorwich is a city in England. It is the regional administrative centre and county town of Norfolk. During the 11th century, Norwich was the largest city in England after London, and one of the most important places in the kingdom...
City Council 2000-2005) handles complaints from BirminghamBirminghamBirmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
City, SolihullMetropolitan Borough of SolihullThe Metropolitan Borough of Solihull is a metropolitan borough of the West Midlands, in west-central England. It is named after its largest town, Solihull, from which Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council is based. For Eurostat purposes it is a NUTS 3 region and is one of five boroughs or unitary...
, CheshireCheshireCheshire is a ceremonial county in North West England. Cheshire's county town is the city of Chester, although its largest town is Warrington. Other major towns include Widnes, Congleton, Crewe, Ellesmere Port, Runcorn, Macclesfield, Winsford, Northwich, and Wilmslow...
, DerbyshireDerbyshireDerbyshire is a county in the East Midlands of England. A substantial portion of the Peak District National Park lies within Derbyshire. The northern part of Derbyshire overlaps with the Pennines, a famous chain of hills and mountains. The county contains within its boundary of approx...
, NottinghamshireNottinghamshireNottinghamshire is a county in the East Midlands of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west...
, LincolnshireLincolnshireLincolnshire is a county in the east of England. It borders Norfolk to the south east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south west, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire to the west, South Yorkshire to the north west, and the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north. It also borders...
, WarwickshireWarwickshireWarwickshire is a landlocked non-metropolitan county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, although the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare...
and the North of England.
Territories formerly handled by Tony Redmond, who handled complaints from North London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan home county in South East England. The county town is Aylesbury, the largest town in the ceremonial county is Milton Keynes and largest town in the non-metropolitan county is High Wycombe....
, Berkshire
Berkshire
Berkshire is a historic county in the South of England. It is also often referred to as the Royal County of Berkshire because of the presence of the royal residence of Windsor Castle in the county; this usage, which dates to the 19th century at least, was recognised by the Queen in 1957, and...
, Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England. The county town is Hertford.The county is one of the Home Counties and lies inland, bordered by Greater London , Buckinghamshire , Bedfordshire , Cambridgeshire and...
, Essex
Essex
Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...
, Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
, Surrey
Surrey
Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...
, Suffolk
Suffolk
Suffolk is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in East Anglia, England. It has borders with Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south. The North Sea lies to the east...
, and Sussex
Sussex
Sussex , from the Old English Sūþsēaxe , is an historic county in South East England corresponding roughly in area to the ancient Kingdom of Sussex. It is bounded on the north by Surrey, east by Kent, south by the English Channel, and west by Hampshire, and is divided for local government into West...
, are currently being divided between Martin and Seex following Redmond's November 2010 retirement.
Complaint process
If the complainant is not satisfied with the outcome of a complaint against a local council he or she can send a written complaint to the Local Government Ombudsman or ask a councillor to do so on their behalf. The LGO will decide whether or not to investigate. After investigation the Local Government Ombudsman presents both parties with a provisional finding that they may challenge, possibly leading to further consideration and investigation. Complainants can ask the Local Government Ombudsman to re-open their case via the Ombudsman's Comeback procedure only when a complaint has been determined without a formal report.Results
1.71% of cases in 2004/5 resulted in a published report and a finding of maladministration. A further 25.29% of cases ended by 'local settlement' agreed between the council and the Local Government Ombudsman. Local settlements do not result in a public report or a formal finding of maladministration. Councils are under no legal obligation to fulfill local settlements or act on the Local Government Ombudsman's recommendations, even those in a published report, though the Ombudsman states that only one percent of settlements and recommendations are not complied with in full.One risk of taking a complaint to the Local Government Omdudsman is that the complainant may run out of time to seek judicial review of a council's decision, missing the opportunity to raise the original matter in court. Judicial review must be sought within three months in the UK whereas only 54% of 2004/5 Ombudsman cases were determined within this time.
Complaints about the Local Government Ombudsman
Complainants dissatisfied with the way a Local Government Ombudsman investigator deals with a complaint have recourse to the LGO's complaints procedure, which will be investigated by the Deputy Local Government Ombudsman.The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister is charged with receiving complaints about the Local Government Ombudsman but does not know how many and does not act upon them.
Judicial review
Although the Local Government Ombudsman is not accountable to any external authority, complainants dissatisfied with the Ombudsman's decision on their original complaint may seek Judicial Review through the courts. Costs can be claimed if the challenge is successful. Judges do not overturn decisions of the Local Government Ombudsman but can require the Ombudsman to reconsider.Publications
The service publishes quite extensively, including an annual "digest of cases" and "guidance on good practice" notes.External links
- LGO.org.uk - 'Local Government Ombudsman' (official website)
- Parliament.uk (pdf) - 'The Role and Effectiveness of the Local Government Ombudsmen for England: Eleventh Report of Session 2004-2005', House of CommonsBritish House of CommonsThe House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the Sovereign and the House of Lords . Both Commons and Lords meet in the Palace of Westminster. The Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 650 members , who are known as Members...
(April 7, 2005)