To the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Secretary,
and
To the Chair, Ombudsman Services:.
For Clarity - Attempt 597.
597) "Which Side Are You On?" Florence Reece.
Jeremy Corbyn For Prime Minister.
Dear Mr Clark and Lord Tim Clement Jones,
Each day around 200 consumers have their complaint "investigated" by Ombudsman Services.
No-one knows if those complainants are very satisfied or very dissatisfied with the outcome of the investigation because Ombudsman Services no longer ask them.
On 31st May 2013 we wrote to The Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Employment Relations and Consumer Affairs:
"Dear Jo Swinson,
Apparently, The RICS is,
"Governed by a Royal Charter approved by Parliament which requires it to act in the public interest."
We have already attempted to bring our complaint our complaint about the RICS and the company it set up, (to supposedly "investigate" complaints brought by British taxpayers and consumers against its Members or Regulated Firms) The Surveyors Ombudsman Service, to the attention of the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills.
We complained that along with us, the majority of consumers usine this dispute resolution service got an illogical Final Decision from the Ombudsman, Gillian Fleming. (DJS Research: Customer Satisfaction Reports - 2009/10/11)
Independent research carried out for The SOS - or as it is now known: Ombudsman Services:Property - by DJS Research catalogues what a disaster this company is for the consumer. We first complained to Gillian Fleming but without success. Then to the Chair, Dame Janet Finch who passed our complaint to the CO, The Rev Lewis Shand Smith. He in turn passed it back to the Ombudsman, Gillian Fleming, who said she'd already answered our complaint
Only she hadn't.
Which is why we took our complaint to the Chair of OS:P, Dame Janet Finch.
In short, that is how The SOS/OS:P set about handling complaints about their service. They simply ignore them. And then contemptuously tell complainants to go away and stop troubling them.
It is extremely effective.
Q. Lord Tim Clement Jones, if these are your best efforts as you put it, then surly they aren't good enough. It is consumers who are complaining about your Members and not, as some might think, the other way 'round. Which side are you on?
In spite of the widespread consumer dissatisfaction with this service there is no formal way of registering a complaint with the company about its abysmal service and abysmal decisions.
This is a dispute resolution service that does very little to actively resolve disputes. (DJS Research: Customer Satisfaction Reports - 2009/10/11)
Having failed to get any answers from the executives at the company, we then wrote to The Rt Hon Vince Cable MP. Norman Lamb MP and Mark Prisk MP. But didn't get a reply from any of them either. Instead the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills set our complaint to the OFT without bothering to tell us because, apparently, it isn't BIS policy to do so.
Why isn't it? This is supposed to be a democracy after all.
In effect, the BIS told us to go away and stop troubling them. It would appear that the department's civil servants are far too busy doing far more important things, like responding to demands made by important people at the RICS.
Although the BIS don't have the time to listen to the average taxpayer they do seem to listen intently to The RICS eg,
"RICS demands government boost for housebuilders"
and,
"Written evidence submitted by RICS (LOCO 105)
Q. Lord Tim Clement Jones, doesn't this exactly mirror what happens at Ombudsman Services - you listen intently to The RICS but complain publicly about complainants?
For an organisation with a Royal Charter granted by Parliament it si remarkably impervious to public scrutiny and seems remarkably masonic in its operations. At the same time, however, it expects that its demands be heard and acted upon. I you research engine articles (academic or otherwise) critical of the RICS, you won't find many:
- Building co.uk:2004 issue 13: Morrell issues RICS Ultimatum. Morrell criticised
the RICS for its Byzantine structure and lack of accountability.
- www.crplus.co.uk 7th July 2005 rebel resigns after apologising - a senior figure in RICS who attacked his own chief executive for 'creating an empire' at the organisation has resigned. Morgan, Chair of RICS Construction Faculty said last week the empire building of Louis Armstrong (?!) and other senior figures at the group, 'was plunging the institution into chaos.' Mr Morgan also criticised the spending policies of the RICS and its general governance.
Was RICS setting up of the SOS in 2007 to handle complaints about its Members and (Un)Regulated Firms, part of creating that empire?
The above criticisms levelled at the RICS back in 2004'5 are remarkably similar to the ones that we tried to make to The RICS Mk 2 - The SOS/OS:P - ie, its lack of accountability, its empire building and its general governance.
If BIS ministers do indeed have a brief for 'Regulation' and 'Better Regulation' why are they refusing to scrutinise what is happening at the RICS?
If the Queen's ministers aren't up to the job what chance does the consumer have when confronting an organisation like The RICS? (and its "appointed" scheme, OS:Property)
How is it in the public interest for Parliament to ignore the fact that The RICS can't or won't regulate its own Members or (Un)Regulated Firms but is permitted by Parliament to set up a compan to investigate complaints made by the public against its Members or (Un)Regulated Firms and is then given carte blanche by Parliament to regulate said company?
A company whose Ombudsman, apparently, 'arrives at decisions in an illogical manner?' (DJS Research: Customer Satisfaction Reports - 2009/10/11)
Q. Lord Tim Clement Jones, if The RICS effectively regulated their Members and (Un)Regulated firms in the first place, surly there would be no need for Ombudsman Services:Property and then you wouldn't have to complain about complainants?
By apparently choosing to ignore the fact that consumers are being handed illogical Final Decisions by the company's Ombudsman aren't government ministers actually condoning and colluding with what must seem to any fair minded person to be a gross injustice?
Otherwise, wouldn't Ministers have already stepped in and done something about it?
Q. Lord Tim Clement Jones, why do you no longer ask complainants if they thought their complaint had received an illogical Final Decision and why do you no longer publish this in your annual property report?
This arrangement certainly seems to be in the interests of RICS Members and (UN)Regulated Firms but how can it possibly be in the consumer's interests to be on the receiving end of an illogical Final Decision?
Isn't handing out hundreds (thousands now) of illogical Final Decisions to consumers not far worse than handing your former wife your speeding penalty points? And if not why not?
DJS Research have lost the contract to conduct Customer satisfaction reports. The new company has yet to publish any data on OS:P and yet the executives have informed OFT monitors of the scheme that they would. The company's minutes have also vanished from the face of the earth.
As Under Secretary of State, what are your views on what seems to be a cynical attempt by the company's Chair, Dame Janet Finch and CEO The Rev Lewis Shand Smith, to hide information from the British taxpayer and consumer?
Q. Lord Tim Clement Jones, your predecessor introduced Mutually Acceptable Settlements (MAS) because Provisional Conclusions were a total disaster. In 2016 1% of complainants accepted them - 99% didn't. Does this not go a long way to explain why for some consumers your best efforts will never be good enough?
Q. Lord Tim Clement Clement Jones, with a 1% success rate shouldn't you consider your position and resign?
How is Parliament safeguarding the public interest by allowing this organisation to continue operating in this way?
Is there an Unofficial Secrets Act, whereby in return for politicians not asking questions of the organisation - awkward or otherwise - the organisation in return won't cattle-truck their careers?
Isn't what we are witnessing the gradual privatisation of democracy? Organisations such as The RICS lobby Parliament demanding a government boost for homebuilding whilst individuals who will buy those homes and who then make complaints, will simply be ignored by government departments like the BIS - because it isn't BIS policy to to answer complaints about regulation when it comes to The RICS or its creation - Ombudsman Services:Property?
In turn, how can the OFT's Executive Director, Clive Maxwell, be satisfied with the, 'monitoring' of the SOS/OS:P Scheme approved by his predecessor, Jonathan may, when the scheme's Ombudsman, Gillian Fleming, appears , 'to arrive at decisions in an illogical manner?
Why are government departments allowing consumers to continue taking their complaints to a company whose Ombudsman - according to independent research - arrives at decisions in an illogical manner - surely they've read and understood DJS Research's findings?
Q. Lord Tim Clement Jones, illogical final decisions are certainly Good For Business but how are they Good For Consumers?
Consumer Focus have attempted to alert government to the rigging of the property market. They have said,
'Sometimes an entire market has developed practices that are not working in the customer's interests. The market in regulating surveyors and estate agents is a case in point. We believe this problem has its origins in the RICS' apparent inability to adequately regulate its Members or Regulated Firms.
WE have asked Jonathan May, former Executive Director of the OFT, and now Board member of Consumer Focus, for his views on the matter, but so far we have not received a reply.
As Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Employment relations and Consumer Affairs, how can you justify turning an organisation that asks important questions about The RICS' failure to properly regulate its Members or Regulated Firms into one that offers tips on loft insulation?
Isn't your Party having rings run around it by those Tories who thought Mrs Thatcher didn't go far enough in de-regulating markets? Isn't The RICS a nightmarish vision of the future? And what future does Consumer Focus offer the consumer?
Haven't you actually made it far easier for The RICS empire builders to future develop practices that will not benefit customers because their surveyors will know there's a permanent green light for them to do as they please?
If their very own professional body can't - or won't - regulate what have they possibly to fear from an Ombudsman who seems to arrive at decisions in an illogical manner?
Q. Lord Tim Clement Jones, you have a Memorandum of Understanding with RICS who monitor your decision making to ensure that it is in their words - effective - is handing a consumer an illogical final decision not part of a market which isn't working in the consumer's interests?
Why has the OFT, year after year, continued to approve a scheme on behalf of the British taxpayer which allows those taxpayers to end up on the recieing end of an illogical final decision?
One of the OFT's criterion (Criterion 9) is for the Ombudsman to be mindful of Human Rights legislation when considering a case. If, according to DJS Research, an Ombudsman is arriving at decisions in an illogical manner don't hose decisions not also violate the Human Rights of the complainant?
If an Ombudsman is not capable of arriving at decisions in a logical manner, surely they're not capable of deciding on Human Rights issues either?
How is the continued governmental approval of a scheme that hands out unjust decisions to the British Taxpayer and consumer, in the public interest?
Yours sincerely,
Steve Gilbert
The Ombudsmans61percent Campaign.
Q. Lord Tim Clement Jones, complainants have a Human Right to request a face -to-face meeting with your Ombudsman, how many complainants know of this right and were granted it in 2016?
Jo Swinson did not reply to our letter.
Q. Mr Clark, do you as someone with a close and continuing relationship with this company unreservedly assure consumers that when they take their complaint to Ombudsman Services they will be meticulously investigated by a fair and independent Ombudsman?
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