Examination of Witness (Questions 40-44)
4 MAY 2004
ZAHIDA MANZOOR
CBE
Q40 Mr Dawson: Is there any conflict
of interest between the two roles?
Ms Manzoor: No, there is no conflict
of interest between the two roles. As I have indicated, the two
roles are very separate. They have two very distinct remits. The
only issue that has been brought to my attention by the legal
advice that I have received is the sharing of personal data between
the two officers regarding individual complaints, which is, of
course, a data protection issue.
Q41 Mr Dawson: You would not, for instance,
in your role as an ombudsman, be taking an individual issue on
behalf of a complainant which reflected on some of the works that
you have been doing, work with the Law Society, for instance,
to improve the structure of the complaint handling?
Ms Manzoor: As Legal Service Ombudsman
I have a detailed knowledge of the kind of issues that complainants
are writing about, and that knowledge will be very valuable in
my role as LSCC. Indeed, I sign off every case personally. My
operations manager, will be working very closely with my operations
director at the LSCC to share trends in complaint handling, but
not individual cases, no. It would be against data protection
to do that. In any event, I would not be setting targets for the
Law Society on the back of one or two complaints. It has to be
on the back of trends that may be coming from the ombudsman's
office but, more importantly, the audits that I will be undertaking,
random audits I will be undertaking as LSCC of the whole complaint
systems and processes within the Law Society.
Q42 Chairman: You did say that you were
attracted by the suggestion of one of the Justice Committees of
the Scottish Parliament that there should be a single gateway
for the receipt of complaints and beginning the handling process
and that that you would see how that idea was pursued in Scotland
and discuss it with the professional bodies in England. Did you
get anywhere on that?
Ms Manzoor: It has not been progressed
in Scotland because I think there was a change in the political
make-up. Certainly Clementi has overtaken any of those discussions,
but I have had some very good discussions with some of the professional
bodies in looking at a way forward in that particular area. I
think, once again not to prejudice the outcome of the Clementi
review, it is about looking at the roles of representation and
regulation which is very much at the heart of the debate. I am
concerned that complaints are not the focal point of this overall
debate. It is not the only area. There is a much wider remit to
be looked at than just complaint handling itself.
Q43 Chairman: But from the public point
of view, from the consumer point of view, which is your starting
point in all this, knowing where to go and knowing that it is
part of some kind of real system, does that not offer attractions?
Ms Manzoor: Of course, it does
offer attractions, but if you are going to have a regulator, an
independent regulator, you are talking about one regulator, you
are not looking at five different professional bodies.
Q44 Chairman: This is in the context
of an idea of an over-arching regulator from the not entirely
happy precedent of financial services?
Ms Manzoor: As you will be aware,
David Clementi has advocated three potential models and one is
very similar to the financial services model, Model A. There is
a Model B and there is a Model B Plus, and it would be premature
for me to speculate as to what the outcome of that review will
be. From my own personal perspective, I think having a strong
independent regulator that represents the consumer's view is essential.
Chairman: Ms Manzoor, thank you very
much indeed.
Ms Manzoor: Thank you very much.
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