Public_Services_Ombudsman_for_Wales

Public Services Ombudsman for Wales

The Public Services Ombudsman for Wales (in Welsh Ombwdsmon Gwasanaethau Cyhoeddus Cymru) was established by the Public Services Ombudsman (Wales) Act 2005. The Public Services Ombudsman for Wales brings together the jurisdictions of various offices he replaced, namely the Local Government Ombudsman for Wales, the Health Service Ombudsman for Wales, the Welsh Administration Ombudsman and the Social Housing Ombudsman for Wales.

The Ombudsman has a dual role. Firstly, under Part 2 of the Act, he investigates complaints by members of the public concerning maladministration, failure in a relevant service or failure to provide a relevant service by any "listed authority" in Wales. Secondly, under Part 3 of the Act, he is responsible for policing ethical standards in local authorities.

The Ombudsman is appointed by the Queen. The current Ombudsman is Peter Tyndall who was appointed in April 2008

Maladministration and Failure of Service

The "listed authorities" subject to the Ombudsman's supervision in regard to maladministration or failure of service are:

The Welsh Assembly
Local authorities
Fire authorities
Police authorities
Joint boards of all local authorities in Wales
National park authorities
The Countryside Council for Wales
The Environment Agency
The Forestry Commissioners
Regional flood defence committees
Internal drainage boards
The Care Council for Wales
Local Health Boards
NHS trusts and Special Health Authorities
The Wales Centre for Health
Community Health Councils
Various other listed health providers
Social landlords
The National Council for Education and Training for Wales
The Office of Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education and Training in Wales
The Higher Education Funding Council for Wales
State school governing bodies in relation to the admission of pupils (and admission and exclusion appeal panels)
The Arts Council of Wales
The Sports Council for Wales
The Wales Tourist Board
The Welsh Development Agency
The Welsh Language Board

Ethical Standards and Codes of Conduct

Part of the Ombudsman's role is to investigates complaints that members of local government bodies have behaved wrongly.

The Ombudsman has issued statutory guidance known as Principles of Good Administration. Each local authority must adopt a Code of Conduct based on those principles, which covers members and employees. Local authorities are expected to handle complaints themselves, with the office of the Ombudsman maintaining an overview of investigations in to allegations that members' conduct may have fallen short of the required standards.

The Ombudsman has power to investigate any complaint referred to him. If he concludes that there is evidence which warrants doing so, he will send a formal report either to the authority’s standards committee or to the Adjudication Panel for Wales. It will be for the authority or the Panel to decide if the code of conduct has been broken and if so, what penalty to impose on the member concerned. The maximum penalty the Panel may impose is five years’ disqualification from office.

Those who are subject to such supervision are the following types of authority in Wales and the members of any of them: