Annual Report 2007-08 - the Parliamentary and Health Service ...

previously identified. I am pleased tosay that HM Revenue & Customsaccepted all the recommendations inmy second report and is taking actionto implement them. This is, in my view,a good example of the deliberativeprocess in action, with my Office playingits proper part by eliciting a reasonedresponse and effective remedial actionfrom government.As part of my function of deliveringbroader public benefit, I have duringthe course of 2007-08 published newguidance in the form of Principles forRemedy, to complement Principles ofGood Administration published last year.I have recently finished consulting ona third publication, Principles of GoodComplaint Handling, which we willpublish in autumn 2008. These variousPrinciples draw on the experience andexpertise of my Office to propose anobjective framework within which publicauthorities should seek to work. At thesame time, the Principles help clarify theexpectations against which I will judgeperformance. In short, the principlesof legality, flexibility, transparency,fairness and accountability are whatI regard as the necessary ingredientsof good administration; and if goodadministration is in part an attempt tohumanise the workings of bureaucracy,remedial action is the attempt to restorethat sense of human value to those whohave been denied it. Principles of GoodAdministration and Principles for Remedyare different sides of the same coin.None of this work is conducted inisolation from Ombudsmen colleaguesat home and abroad, and thiscollaborative work is something to whichI draw further attention later in thisReport. At home, the past year has seenthe implementation of a new RegulatoryReform Order that for the first timeformalises joint investigations by myOffice and the Local GovernmentOmbudsman. It has already been put toeffective use in dealing with a complaintthat crossed the boundary between localauthority and central government socialand healthcare responsibilities.Further afield, the Council of Europe’sHuman Rights Commissioner,Thomas Hammarberg, has encouragedOmbudsmen throughout Europe toco-operate more effectively with hisOffice and with national human rightsinstitutions to help uphold human rightsprinciples in public administration. I wasvery pleased to welcome Mr Hammarbergto my Office during his recent visit to theUK and look forward to contributing tothe initiative that he has promptedin the year ahead, not least by liaising,when appropriate, with the new Equalityand Human Rights Commission and withthe Parliamentary Joint Committee onHuman Rights.The key organisational challenges will,however, occur much closer to home.In April 2009, a new system for handlingcomplaints in the NHS will come intoforce, with increased emphasis on theneed for local resolution and with theOmbudsman acting as the second stagein the complaints process, after NHSbodies and individuals themselves haveconcluded their involvement. Thisdevelopment, despite its short-termorganisational challenges, holds out theprospect of longer-term improvementsto the system and is one that I warmlywelcome. For my own Office it representsyet a further opportunity to deliverindividual benefit to those alreadyaggrieved and wider public benefit toall those countless citizens who willmake use of the NHS in the future. Itis therefore just one aspect of that largerproject of delivering meaningful individualand public benefit, upon which itcontinues to be my privilege to befruitfully engaged.Ann AbrahamParliamentary and Health ServiceOmbudsmanOctober 2008