Michael Buckley (civil servant)
Encyclopedia
Sir Michael Sydney Buckley KBE is a retired civil servant who was Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration and Health Service Commissioner for England, Scotland and Wales (Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman) between 1997 and 2002.
Buckley was born in 1939 and educated at Eltham College
and Christ Church, Oxford
where he studied Mods and Greats
. In 1962, Buckley joined the Treasury
as an Assistant Principal. He was the Assistant Private Secretary to the Chancellor of the Exchequer
, James Callaghan
between 1965 and 1966. He was then a Principal at the Treasury until 1968, when he moved to the Civil Service Department, where he stayed until 1971. Buckley moved back to the Treasury as Principal and then as Assistant Secretary between 1974 and 1977. He was at the Department of Industry between 1977 and 1980 and then moved back to the Treasury yet again as an Assistant Secretary. In 1982 Buckley became the Under Secretary of the Cabinet Office
before becoming the head of the electricity and coal divisions at the Department of Energy
in 1985. In 1989 Buckley became the principal establishment and finance officer at the Department, where he served until 1991. Buckley was Chairman of Dartford and Gravesham NHS Trust between 1995 and 1996.
and took up the post in January 1997.
As a priority, Buckley sought to eliminate the backlog of casework which had accumulated without affecting the quality of investigations undertaken by the Office. He targeted additional staff and changes in working methods and management as means of speeding up investigation throughput times. Staff would only undertake work that would add value to the resolution of a complaint. It was no longer to be assumed that all aspects of every complaint were to be exhaustively examined. Delegation within the Office also went much deeper so that decisions were made at the lowest appropriate level. Other additions to Office practice included targets, performance appraisals for staff, reviews of performance against targets and time recording. Screening and investigation staff were now to be employed on permanent contracts instead of the Office relying on those on short-term contracts and secondments. As a consequence of these initiatives, the average throughput time for cases fell from 91 weeks in 1998-9 to just 44 weeks in 1999-2000. Investigations backlogs were also eliminated. These improvements were being achieved against a backdrop of consistently heavy workload: the Office was annually receiving approximately 1,500 new cases. Greater use was also made of informal investigations to secure redress for complainants. Greater publicity was also given to the existence of the Office, including a website
that included an interactive copmlaints form. The Office was also moved to new premises at Millbank Tower
.
In 2002, Buckley criticised the Government for withholding information from his investigation into the Hinduja affair, in which Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
Peter Mandelson
was accused of attempting to influence a passport application by Srichand Hinduja. Buckley complained that the refusal to release the information strikes at the very heart of my office's function and effectively made my investigation unsustainable. The Cabinet Office apologised and disclosed to Buckley the papers he sought. Buckley also criticised the Home Office
for its failure to maintain its files on the sensitive issue in anything approaching an adequate manner. Buckley had sought a transcript of a disputed telephone call between Mandelson and the Home Office Minister Mike O'Brien about the affair. However, the Home Office were unable to find many of the papers for the case. Tony Wright
, Chairman of the Public Affairs Select Committee, said the affair demonstrated appalling record keeping, horrific administrative failures and breakdowns in IT systems in Government departments.
The most notable Parliamentary case handled by the Office during Buckley's term as Ombudsman concerned complaints about the actions of the Department of Social Security
in connection with SERPS
. SERPS as an additional pension under which widows and widowers would receive the full additional pension earned by their spouse. The Social Security Act 1986 changed inheritance rules so that widows and widowers would only receive half of the amount of the additional pension. The Department failed to mention this change in its leaflets or bring attention to it when enquiries were made by the public. When it became apparent that the imminent change was not widely known in 1998, 344 individual complaints were referred to the Office by MPs. Buckley selected a cross-section of complaints as representative of the whole and undertook an investigation, reporting in March 2000. Buckley found that there had been maladministration, criticising its failure to produce accurate leaflets and not checking that its staff were aware of the change in the law. The burden of proof would be on the Department to show that people claiming to have been misled would have acted differently had they not been misinformed. The Secretary of State for Social Security, Alistair Darling
accepted the report and announced that the changes to the inheriteance provisions would be postponed until 2002 and that the Government would establish a scheme which would protect the pensions rights of those who had been misinformed. After a Select Committee report, the scheme was abandoned and Darling announced a new set of proposals giving full protection to every pensioner and introducing a transitional arrangement for those approaching retirement age. Buckley wrote a second report on the issue, published in February 2001. In it, he expressed satisfaction that the Government's proposals would correct the effects of past maladministration, giving time for those approaching retirement to adjust their financial arrangements. The Government undertook to mount a publicity campaign and to write to all pensioners and those coming up to retirement age.
Buckley replicated the practice of delegation for health investigations, arguing that it was a necessary decision given the increasing numbers of complaints about clinical judgment, which had only just been brought within the remit of the Ombudsman. The nature of the role of Health Service Ombudsman, it was commented, changed fundamentally during Buckley's tenure. More than four-fifths of the health investigations it undertook concerned clinical judgment, a radical change from the previous concern with maladministration and service failure. Buckley developed a more business-orientated approach to the handling of health cases and oversaw a smooth transition to coping with the extended jurisdiction over clinical judgment matters.
Buckley concluded at the end of his tenure that the Office had come a long way under his stewardship. He observed that the mountainous backlogs have been cleared. Output records have consistently been broken... There is a larger and more flexible range of tools for dealing with complaints... there have been fundamental changes in organisation, in employment policies, in training and development.
, serving between 2003 and 2008.
In 2005, Buckley was employed by Ulster University to investigate allegations of wrongdoing by the Vice Chancellor, Gerry McKenna. Concerns were raised about the conduct of McKenna and the expense of a large building programme. The report by Buckley found that there was a prima facie case to answer on four main allegations, including those of bullying, harassment and alcoholism. Buckley described how McKenna had become increasingly dogmatic, irritable and arrogant. McKenna relinquished his post of Vice Chancellor and retired shortly afterwards.
Fluent in French
, German
and Italian
, Buckley enjoys reading, gardening, listening to music and photography.
Buckley was born in 1939 and educated at Eltham College
Eltham College
This article is about the school in London, England. For the school in Research, Australia see Eltham College of Education.Eltham College is an independent school situated in Mottingham in south-east London...
and Christ Church, Oxford
Christ Church, Oxford
Christ Church or house of Christ, and thus sometimes known as The House), is one of the largest constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England...
where he studied Mods and Greats
Literae Humaniores
Literae Humaniores is the name given to an undergraduate course focused on Classics at Oxford and some other universities.The Latin name means literally "more humane letters", but is perhaps better rendered as "Advanced Studies", since humaniores has the sense of "more refined" or "more learned",...
. In 1962, Buckley joined the Treasury
HM Treasury
HM Treasury, in full Her Majesty's Treasury, informally The Treasury, is the United Kingdom government department responsible for developing and executing the British government's public finance policy and economic policy...
as an Assistant Principal. He was the Assistant Private Secretary to the Chancellor of the Exchequer
Chancellor of the Exchequer
The Chancellor of the Exchequer is the title held by the British Cabinet minister who is responsible for all economic and financial matters. Often simply called the Chancellor, the office-holder controls HM Treasury and plays a role akin to the posts of Minister of Finance or Secretary of the...
, James Callaghan
James Callaghan
Leonard James Callaghan, Baron Callaghan of Cardiff, KG, PC , was a British Labour politician, who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1976 to 1979 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1976 to 1980...
between 1965 and 1966. He was then a Principal at the Treasury until 1968, when he moved to the Civil Service Department, where he stayed until 1971. Buckley moved back to the Treasury as Principal and then as Assistant Secretary between 1974 and 1977. He was at the Department of Industry between 1977 and 1980 and then moved back to the Treasury yet again as an Assistant Secretary. In 1982 Buckley became the Under Secretary of the Cabinet Office
Cabinet Office
The Cabinet Office is a department of the Government of the United Kingdom responsible for supporting the Prime Minister and Cabinet of the United Kingdom....
before becoming the head of the electricity and coal divisions at the Department of Energy
Department of Energy (United Kingdom)
The Department of Energy was a department of the United Kingdom Government. The Department was established in January 1974, when the responsibility for energy production was transferred away from the Department of Trade and Industry in the wake of the 1973 oil crisis and with the importance of...
in 1985. In 1989 Buckley became the principal establishment and finance officer at the Department, where he served until 1991. Buckley was Chairman of Dartford and Gravesham NHS Trust between 1995 and 1996.
Ombudsman
Buckley was appointed as Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman to succeed Sir William ReidWilliam Reid (civil servant)
Sir William Kennedy Reid KCB is a retired civil servant who was Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration and Health Service Commissioner for England, Scotland and Wales between 1990 and 1996....
and took up the post in January 1997.
As a priority, Buckley sought to eliminate the backlog of casework which had accumulated without affecting the quality of investigations undertaken by the Office. He targeted additional staff and changes in working methods and management as means of speeding up investigation throughput times. Staff would only undertake work that would add value to the resolution of a complaint. It was no longer to be assumed that all aspects of every complaint were to be exhaustively examined. Delegation within the Office also went much deeper so that decisions were made at the lowest appropriate level. Other additions to Office practice included targets, performance appraisals for staff, reviews of performance against targets and time recording. Screening and investigation staff were now to be employed on permanent contracts instead of the Office relying on those on short-term contracts and secondments. As a consequence of these initiatives, the average throughput time for cases fell from 91 weeks in 1998-9 to just 44 weeks in 1999-2000. Investigations backlogs were also eliminated. These improvements were being achieved against a backdrop of consistently heavy workload: the Office was annually receiving approximately 1,500 new cases. Greater use was also made of informal investigations to secure redress for complainants. Greater publicity was also given to the existence of the Office, including a website
Website
A website, also written as Web site, web site, or simply site, is a collection of related web pages containing images, videos or other digital assets. A website is hosted on at least one web server, accessible via a network such as the Internet or a private local area network through an Internet...
that included an interactive copmlaints form. The Office was also moved to new premises at Millbank Tower
Millbank Tower
Millbank Tower is a high skyscraper in the City of Westminster at Millbank, on the banks of the River Thames in London, in the United Kingdom. The Tower was constructed in 1963 for Vickers and was originally known as Vickers Tower. It was designed by Ronald Ward and Partners and built by John...
.
In 2002, Buckley criticised the Government for withholding information from his investigation into the Hinduja affair, in which Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
The Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, informally the Northern Ireland Secretary, is the principal secretary of state in the government of the United Kingdom with responsibilities for Northern Ireland. The Secretary of State is a Minister of the Crown who is accountable to the Parliament of...
Peter Mandelson
Peter Mandelson
Peter Benjamin Mandelson, Baron Mandelson, PC is a British Labour Party politician, who was the Member of Parliament for Hartlepool from 1992 to 2004, served in a number of Cabinet positions under both Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, and was a European Commissioner...
was accused of attempting to influence a passport application by Srichand Hinduja. Buckley complained that the refusal to release the information strikes at the very heart of my office's function and effectively made my investigation unsustainable. The Cabinet Office apologised and disclosed to Buckley the papers he sought. Buckley also criticised the Home Office
Home Office
The Home Office is the United Kingdom government department responsible for immigration control, security, and order. As such it is responsible for the police, UK Border Agency, and the Security Service . It is also in charge of government policy on security-related issues such as drugs,...
for its failure to maintain its files on the sensitive issue in anything approaching an adequate manner. Buckley had sought a transcript of a disputed telephone call between Mandelson and the Home Office Minister Mike O'Brien about the affair. However, the Home Office were unable to find many of the papers for the case. Tony Wright
Tony Wright (Cannock Chase MP)
Dr. Anthony Wayland Wright is a British Labour Party politician and author, who was the Member of Parliament for Cannock Chase from 1997 to 2010...
, Chairman of the Public Affairs Select Committee, said the affair demonstrated appalling record keeping, horrific administrative failures and breakdowns in IT systems in Government departments.
The most notable Parliamentary case handled by the Office during Buckley's term as Ombudsman concerned complaints about the actions of the Department of Social Security
Department of Social Security
The Department of Social Security is the name of a defunct governmental agency in the United Kingdom.The DSS replaced the older Department of Health and Social Security, from 1988 until 2001, when it was itself largely replaced as a department of the Government of the United Kingdom by the...
in connection with SERPS
SERPS
SERPS may refer to:* State Earnings-Related Pension Scheme, a UK Government pension arrangement from April 6 1978 to April 5 2002* SERPs, short for search engine results pages...
. SERPS as an additional pension under which widows and widowers would receive the full additional pension earned by their spouse. The Social Security Act 1986 changed inheritance rules so that widows and widowers would only receive half of the amount of the additional pension. The Department failed to mention this change in its leaflets or bring attention to it when enquiries were made by the public. When it became apparent that the imminent change was not widely known in 1998, 344 individual complaints were referred to the Office by MPs. Buckley selected a cross-section of complaints as representative of the whole and undertook an investigation, reporting in March 2000. Buckley found that there had been maladministration, criticising its failure to produce accurate leaflets and not checking that its staff were aware of the change in the law. The burden of proof would be on the Department to show that people claiming to have been misled would have acted differently had they not been misinformed. The Secretary of State for Social Security, Alistair Darling
Alistair Darling
Alistair Maclean Darling is a Scottish Labour Party politician who has been a Member of Parliament since 1987, currently for Edinburgh South West. He served as the Chancellor of the Exchequer from 2007 to 2010...
accepted the report and announced that the changes to the inheriteance provisions would be postponed until 2002 and that the Government would establish a scheme which would protect the pensions rights of those who had been misinformed. After a Select Committee report, the scheme was abandoned and Darling announced a new set of proposals giving full protection to every pensioner and introducing a transitional arrangement for those approaching retirement age. Buckley wrote a second report on the issue, published in February 2001. In it, he expressed satisfaction that the Government's proposals would correct the effects of past maladministration, giving time for those approaching retirement to adjust their financial arrangements. The Government undertook to mount a publicity campaign and to write to all pensioners and those coming up to retirement age.
Buckley replicated the practice of delegation for health investigations, arguing that it was a necessary decision given the increasing numbers of complaints about clinical judgment, which had only just been brought within the remit of the Ombudsman. The nature of the role of Health Service Ombudsman, it was commented, changed fundamentally during Buckley's tenure. More than four-fifths of the health investigations it undertook concerned clinical judgment, a radical change from the previous concern with maladministration and service failure. Buckley developed a more business-orientated approach to the handling of health cases and oversaw a smooth transition to coping with the extended jurisdiction over clinical judgment matters.
Buckley concluded at the end of his tenure that the Office had come a long way under his stewardship. He observed that the mountainous backlogs have been cleared. Output records have consistently been broken... There is a larger and more flexible range of tools for dealing with complaints... there have been fundamental changes in organisation, in employment policies, in training and development.
Post-Ombudsman and personal life
After serving as Ombudsman, Buckley became a member of the General Medical CouncilGeneral Medical Council
The General Medical Council registers and regulates doctors practising in the United Kingdom. It has the power to revoke or restrict a doctor's registration if it deems them unfit to practise...
, serving between 2003 and 2008.
In 2005, Buckley was employed by Ulster University to investigate allegations of wrongdoing by the Vice Chancellor, Gerry McKenna. Concerns were raised about the conduct of McKenna and the expense of a large building programme. The report by Buckley found that there was a prima facie case to answer on four main allegations, including those of bullying, harassment and alcoholism. Buckley described how McKenna had become increasingly dogmatic, irritable and arrogant. McKenna relinquished his post of Vice Chancellor and retired shortly afterwards.
Fluent in French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
and Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
, Buckley enjoys reading, gardening, listening to music and photography.