Parliament
and the Ombudsman: Further Report
1. We reported to the House on Parliament
and the Ombudsman in our Fourth Report of Session 2009-10,
published 9 December 2009 as HC 107. The Government Response was
received on 11 March 2010 and is published as an appendix to this
report.
2. Our report made two recommendations: that
the 'MP filter', which requires complaints to the Ombudsman to
be made through a Member of Parliament, be abolished; and that
there should be a guaranteed debate on a substantive motion, on
the floor of the House, on any report from the Ombudsman indicating
that the Government has failed to remedy injustice identified
by her and laid under Section 10(3) of the Parliamentary Commissioner
Act 1967. The Government has rejected both our recommendations.
3. The Government states that the removal of
the MP filter needs further "careful consideration".
We do not agree. The issue has been considered at length by the
Cabinet Office in their Review of the Public Sector Ombudsmen
in England, this Committee and the Ombudsman and her predecessor.[1]
All have concluded that the filter should be removed. The Law
Commission's consultation paper on Administrative Redress,
to which the Government referred in its Response, found that there
was a "strong case" for the abolition of the MP filter.[2]
We are therefore unclear what purpose further consideration would
serve.
4. The Government's Response failed to address
any of the points that we made in support of our second recommendation.
Parliament should not have to rely on the goodwill of the Government
or Opposition front benches to decide how to respond to major
reports from its own Ombudsman. We note, however, that the House's
decision of 4 March to establish a backbench business committee
will mean that the decision is no longer one for them alone.
1 Cabinet Office, Review of the Public Sector Ombudsmen
in England: A Report by the Cabinet Office, April 2000; for
an example of our predecessor Committees' work on this issue see
Public Administration Select Committee, Fourth Report of Session
1999-2000, Report of the Parliamentary Ombudsman for 1998-1999,
HC 106 Back
2
Law Commission, Consultation Paper 187, Administrative Redress:
Public Bodies and the Citizen, http://www.lawcom.gov.uk/docs/cp187_web.pdf
Accessed 15 March 2010 Back
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