Ombudsman Services / Fiddled Figures / Rigged Redress and Mr Rees-Mogg. (14)

             Dear Reader,

 

       We sent the following email to the Leader of the House of Commons

              but suspect it might have been intercepted by a RICS politically 

              influenced and engaged civil servant. 

:

   To the Leader of the House of Commons:

Ombudsman Services Case 510458: Part 3 Issue 1 - Asking Questions. Attempt (14)

14. Ombudsman Services / Fiddled Figures / Rigged Redress and Mr Rees-Mogg

Dear Mrs Leadsom,

We're delighted to see that Mr Rees-Mogg has been following our blog.

He believes Treasury figures - like those manufactured by certain ADR schemes - are fiddled and that certain civil servants - like certain ombudsmen - are biased..

The Guardian tell us;

Rees-Mogg repeats claim Treasury is 'fiddling' Brexit figures

Analysis showing UK would be worse off outside customs union is politically influenced, he says

Jacob Rees-Mogg said Britain must leave any customs union with the EU to do trade deals with the rest of the world. Photograph: Hannah Mckay/Reuters 

Jacob Rees-Mogg has repeated his accusation that Treasury officials are “fiddling the figures” in their Brexit forecasts, even after a cabinet minister was forced to apologise for agreeing with the claim.

Q. Mrs Leadsom, Mr Rees-Mogg's claims are highly contentious - at least the Treasury produce figures - why have Ombudsman Services all but ceased to collect and publish data on their performance in resolving property complaints? 

The Guardian say, "Rees-Mogg, who chairs the pro-Brexit European Research Group of Tory MPs, reiterated his claim that the forecasts were rigged and that the department was determined to keep the UK in the customs union."

Q. Mrs Leadsom, is the dearth of data produced at OS:Property explained by the possibility that property decisions are rigged in favour of the company's fee-paying Members?

He also repeated his assertion, made in the House of Commons, that he had  heard the head of a pro-EU thinktank saying Treasury officials had created an           economic model to show that all options other than remaining in the customs union were bad.

Q. Mrs Leadsom, the CEO and Chief Ombudsman at Ombudsman Services claims to have a superb model of dispute resolution - why do so many property complainants disagree with him?

Jacob Rees-Mogg involved in scuffle during university campus protest

Read more

The Brexit minister Steve Baker apologised to MPs on Friday for saying Rees-Mogg’s account of the remarks by Charles Grant, the head of the Centre for European Reform, was “essentially correct”.
An audio recording of the lunch where he had been speaking emerged which contradicted the claims.

Faced with a demand for an apology from Grant, Rees-Mogg remained intransigent. “The only thing I will apologise for is that it’s turned out to be much more serious than I thought,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

Q. Mrs Leadsom, MoneySavingExepert's claim ombudsman schemes are, "farcical" - won't a public inquiry reveal things to be far more serious than they thought?

The Guardian article continued,

“Mr Grant said the Treasury is determined to keep us in the customs union. He also said on another occasion that the Treasury is ‘newly emboldened’,” he said.

“He is getting private briefings from the Treasury against government policy. This is very serious. It is not for officials to invent policy. This is saying that they are determining policy, that they have an aim to lead policy against what the politicians may decide.”

Q Mrs Leadsom, but isn't this exactly what RICS's politically influenced and engaged civil servants did when getting Vince Cable to "fix" the lettings market: engaged and influenced civil servants determined policy?

Rees-Mogg’s comments came after Theresa May, on the final day of her official visit to China, appeared to leave the door open to some sort of customs agreement with the EU even though ministers have said Britain will leave the existing customs union.

The MP said Conservative Brexiters could not accept such an arrangement because it would stop the UK from striking free trade deals with other countries.

He said that since the decision to call the EU referendum in 2016 – when the then chancellor, George Osborne, campaigned for remain – it was clear that the Treasury’s economic forecasting had become politicised.

Q. Mrs Leadsom, the RICS have said that they politically influenced and engaged civil servants - often behind the scenes - doesn't that mean there are at this very moment politically influenced and engaged civil servants?

Q. Mrs Leadsom, how many politically influenced and engaged civil servants are there?

          Q. Mrs Leadsom, have politically influenced and engaged civil servants been

           intercepting our emails?

 

"With all forecasts, the assumptions you make at the beginning determine the outcomes that you get,” he said.

                                                 

 Mr Rees-Mogg continued;         

“If you look at the forecasts the Treasury made before the referendum, they were a humiliation. They were clearly politically influenced.

Q. Mrs Leadsom, MSE's Sharper Teeth: The Consumer Need For Ombudsman Refom report a complainant dissatisfaction rate of 80%+ at Ombudsman Services:Property isn't this also a humiliating failure of ADR and doesn't it also suggest the decisions are politically influenced?

“The Office of Budget Responsibility was set up by George Osborne because the Treasury forecasts had been politicised. It was thought that they were unreliable on political grounds.

Q. Mrs Leadsom, since the departure of DJS Research there has been a gaping void in the Ombudsman Services:Property's data on its performance in resolving property complaints. Aren't they also unreliable on political grounds?

The political grounds being the need for OS:Property to satisfy the requirements of what the RICS determine to be the, "effective resolution of disputes."

With the referendum and with the EU, the Treasury has gone back to making forecasts. It was politically advantageous for them in the past. It is the same for them now.

Q. Mrs Leadsom is it not politically advantageous for the RICS to have its Property Ombudsman achieve an 80%+ complainant dissatisfaction rate as it gets its fee-paying Members off the hook and saves this part of the property market millions in unpaid compensation? 

“So yes, I do think they are fiddling the figures.”

Q. Mrs Leadsom, at Ombudsman Services:Property there are no figures to speak of - is this not also, "fiddling?"

Grant rejected Rees-Mogg’s account of his comments, although he acknowledged that many in the Treasury did regard staying in the customs union as the “less damaging option” for the economy.

Q. Mrs Leadsom, wouldn't a public inquiry into the RICS and its appointed company Ombudsman Services:Property be a less damaging option for consumers than taking their complaints to this private ADR scheme? 

Mr Rees-Mogg has declined to apologise - perhaps he would have been on safer grounds if his comments had been levelled at pre-Brexit, sovereignty assured British private redress.

Yours sincerely,

Steve Gilbert - Workstock Number - 510458

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