The Parliamentary Ombudsman: role and proposals for reform

The Parliamentary Ombudsman (formally known as the Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration), was established the by Parliamentary Commissioner Act 1967.

The Parliamentary Ombudsman is one of two ombudsman offices (the other being the Health Service Ombudsman) which, by convention, is held by the same person. That person is referred to as the ‘Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman’, although each post is technically a separate office. See section 4 of the Library briefing NHS Complaints Procedures in England for information on the Health Service Ombudsman.

There are other Ombudsman schemes covering a range of topics, such as energy, financial services, pensions and the rail industry. A full list can be found on the Ombudsman Association website.

The Parliamentary Ombudsman investigates complaints from members of the public who believe that they have suffered injustice because of maladministration by government departments or certain other public bodies.

The term ‘maladministration’ is not defined in legislation; however, it can be broadly defined as the public body not having acted properly or fairly or having given a poor service and not put things right.

Complaints to the Parliamentary Ombudsman must be directed through a Member of Parliament (known as the ‘MP filter’) and the complainant must first have put their grievance to the department concerned in order to allow officials to respond before taking the matter further. The MP filter does not apply to complaints about the NHS, which can be made directly to the PHSO.

The Parliamentary Ombudsman deals with matters not devolved to the governments of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland as well as complaints about maladministration in UK Government departments, their agencies and some other public bodies in relation to England. Separate public service ombudsman systems exist for the devolved administrations.

This briefing paper focuses on the Parliamentary Ombudsman. The Parliamentary Ombudsman’s powers and responsibilities are set out in the Parliamentary Commissioner Act 1967, as amended.

The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman has offices in London and Manchester.