Ombudsman Services - "are we delivering the excellent service to which we aspire?" (653)

To the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Secretary / Chair, Ombudsman Services.

For Clarity - Attempt 653.

653. Ombudsman Services - "are we delivering the excellent service to which we aspire?"

Dear Mr Clark and Lord Tim Clement Jones,

In her Foreword to the Ombudsman Services 2011 Annual Report, its then Chair, Professor Dame Janet Finch, felt compelled to ask the above question.

We, at the Ombudsmans61percent Campaign had been asking it too but no-one was providing us with an answer. They still aren't.

Professor Finch went on to say,

"Asserting our commitment to excellence is not the same as delivering this in practice. This year the board has supported Chief Ombudsman Lewis Shand Smith in taking a close and honest look at what we were actually achieving."
(Foreword from the Chair, Dame Janet Finch Annual Report 2011)

It seems that after taking that close and honest look at the carnage that was surrounding them, the CEO and Chief Ombudsman chose to replace DJS Research with BMG, replace Provisional Conclusions with Mutually Acceptable Settlements (MSA) and Member Firms became Participating Companies.

For RICS' inadequately regulated surveyors whose fees fund this service and pay for the salary of their ombudsman to - conveniently for them - arrive at decisions in an illogical manner, being called a Participating Company will have made no difference whatsoever and the financial awards that they might occasionally be expected to pay would continue on their inevitable downward spiral.

Directive 2013/11/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council at 31) states there should be,

"an objective assessment of the circumstances in which the complaint is made and with due regard to the rights of parties."

Q. Lord Tim Clement Jones, having taken a close and honest look at the ombudsman's performance in arriving at decisions in an illogical manner, how does that satisfy the EU Directive's requirement that complainants have a right to an objective assessment of their case?

Since 2010 we have campaigned for a public inquiry into the workings of Ombudsman Services:Property and the role of the RICS in what it determines to be, "the effective resolution of disputes."

Q. Lord Tim Clement Jones, do you not agree that each of those unfortunate complainants should have their cases re-investigated and that in the interests of English Justice the investigation must be conducted by a judge?

Q. Lord Tim Clement Jones, your predecessor, the Sociologist, Professor Finch, in helping the CEO and Chief Ombudsman, The Rev Shand Smith, take that close and honest look has, by inference, suggested that what was happening previously at OS was not, "honest" and that was being achieved was not, "excellent." Don't those who used this private redress scheme deserve a public inquiry into what was - and is - happening at Ombudsman Services?

Part 32) of the EU Directive states,

"the independence and integrity of ADR entities is crucial to gain Union citizens' trust that ADR mechanisms will offer them a fair and independent outcome."

At the same time as Professor Finch was announcing her, "close and honest look" at what Ombudsman Services, Steven Gould, RICS Global Director of Regulation and of Faith and Gould (first company in the Middle East to be regulated by The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors - RICS) as being appointed to the Board.

Q. Lord Tim Clement Jones, how does having; a Memorandum of Understanding with RICS, having RICS demand information on its appointees' performance in resolving disputes effectively and Steven Gould, Global Director of Regulation sitting on the Board, satisfy the EU Directive's requirement for ADR to be independent?

Q. Lord Tim Clement Jones, the OFT has suggested that RICS can't adequately regulate its Members/Participating Companies in this country let alone globally. If the RICS did regulate them, "effectively" in the first place then surely there would be no need for the rigged market in private redress?

Thomas Piketty in, "Capital" has suggested that managers have captured markets and exploit them to their own ends. We believe ombudsmen working with politicians and civil servants, "behind the scenes" are an example of this anti-democratic trend and have stealthily captured and rigged the market in private so-called, "civil justice."

Otherwise things would be very different.

Like you, Mr Clark, we too believe in direct democracy.

Q. Mr Clark, as a matter of great urgency and to satisfy the requirements of the EU Directive, the Ombudsman Services:Property ADR scheme must now be; deprivatised, have no MoM with the RICS, replace RICS Global Officials with consumers who've been through the hell of their consumer journey at Ombudsman Services sitting on its Board, reintroduce DJS Research - or a company who doesn't just conduct telephone research - to critically enquire and report on the effective resolution of disputes, ask each and every property complainant whether they are satisfied or not (and if not why not) with a) the investigation of their complaint and b) the level of financial award they received, (if appropriate), the placing of each case on the internet for public scrutiny and how that case directly impacted upon the business practices of the firm complained about, a whistleblowing policy that protects employees' anonymity, unlimited and legally enforceable financial awards, a league table of RICS surveyors detailing information of complaints received and resolved to give consumers the opportunity to make informed choices when employing surveyors to act on their behalf and the creation of an independent governor of ombudsman schemes.

Consumers will of course have other ideas as to how best to directly democratise ombudsman schemes and bring them kicking and screaming into the 21st century. After all, if we can go to the expense of electing Police Commissioners we can go to the expense of electing Consumer Commissioners to sit on the boards of ombudsman schemes and CCGs.

The answer to Professor Dame Janet Finch's question to The Rev Shand Smith as to whether Ombudsman Services were delivering excellent service must be - no you weren't and we no longer know if you are.

Yours sincerely,

Steve Gilbert - Workstock Number - 510458.

The Ombudsmans61percent Campaign is at: www.blogspot.com and www.facebook.com - Ombudsmans Sixtyone-percent.