To: The Leader of the House of Commons / The Business Secretary and The Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government:
Ombudsman Services Part 4: The Full English Cover-Up (45)
45) 117 Days And No Apology So Far From Smith And Jones, Alas.
Dear Mrs Leadsom, Mr Clark and Mr Javid,
In an earlier attempt to bring to your attention the plight of the victims of Ombudsman Services' Broken Solution, we had suggested that Mrs Rudd would have made darn good Property Ombudsman.
We now know this to be unfair on the Home Secretary as Mrs Rudd is capable of bringing herself to apologise for her total incompetence whereas Smith and Jones appear to have gone to ground and are holed up somewhere in Warrington.
Amber Rudd's 10 days of contrition for Windrush scandal
A four-apology bonanza seems to have staved off the home secretary’s personal crisis – for now
By the time she stood up on Thursday to make her fourth apology for the Windrush fiasco in the space of 10 days, Amber Rudd’s contrition over the victims of the scandal was becoming quite familiar.
Q. Mrs Leadsom, Mr Clark and Mr Javid, this is the 117th day of the year and still there has been no Annual Report from the Government approved and monitored Ombudsman Services:Property. There has been no apology for the fiasco of their, "broken solution" either. Why has a) the Ombudsman Association and b) the Government monitors permitted this to happen?
The Windrush generation “are legally here”, she said (again). People “who contributed so much … should never have experienced what they have”.
Q. Mrs Leadsom, Mr Clark and Mr Javid, legally, is a broken solution to private civil justice lawful?
But the intensity of her contrition has fluctuated markedly from day to day during this rapidly unfurling crisis. Her initial position of total indifference to the series of disturbing accounts published in the Guardian over the past six months morphed into a position of professional political regret. This came only after anger exploded when Downing Street rebuffed Caribbean leaders’ request for a meeting with the prime minister to discuss the scandal.
Q. Mrs Leadsom, Mr Clark and Mr Javid, we've sent hundreds of emails to the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills and now the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy all of which have met with total indifference. Why are you so indifferent to the plight of those victims of Smith and Jones' "broken solution?"
During her first appearance in the Commons last Monday, Rudd was calm and professional. At this point, she was merely “recognising the concerns” of “some” people in the Windrush generation and her apology was more grudging than heartfelt. “I am very sorry for any confusion or anxiety felt,” was as far as she would go – although it was already known that at least one person’s death had been attributed to the stress of trying to secure documents. Dozens more had their lives ruined by problems connected with their paperless state – denied cancer treatment, sacked, made homeless, prevented from travelling to see dying parents in the Caribbean.
Q. Mrs Leadsom, Mr Clark and Mr Javid, thanks to DJS Research's totally fair and totally independent Customer Satisfaction Reports, we know that the OS:Propety Ombudsman and her team of investigators; did not understand the complexity of property complainants, misrepresented information, arrived at decisions in an illogical manner, did not mediate or negotiate, forced complainants to go to the further representation process and then handed them eyewateringly ludicrous decisions. These victims remain a forgotten stock of work each with a number - ours is 510458 . What anxiety have they been forced to suffer? How many were made ill by their customer journey? Did any of them die? And in what ways were their lives ruined by Smith and Jones' "broken solution?"
Despite her cautious remorse, she did in passing describe her department’s treatment of the Windrush group of long-term, Caribbean-born British residents as “appalling”, admitting that their testimonies had been “terrible to hear”.
Q. Mrs Leadsom, Mr Clark and Mr Javid, nearly 90% of property complainants told MoneySavingExperts what they thought of their, "customer experience" in 2017. Why has no one in Government thought to ask them for their testimonies?
She made an extraordinarily important admission in that first appearance, saying she was “concerned that the Home Office has become too concerned with policy and strategy and sometimes loses sight of the individual”. This comment was not linked directly to the Windrush fiasco – she seemed to be making a point about the behaviour of the department in general, recognising that problems were widespread. It is a statement that she should be held to over the next few months.
Q. Mrs Leadsom, Mr Clark and Mr Javid, since the departure of DJS Research in 2011 the executives at Ombudsman Services have not once sought to ask property complainants for they thoughts on the way in which their complaints had been handed - fairly or otherwise. Have the executives not also lost sight of the individual and why was this permitted to happen?
Q. Mrs Leadsom, Mr Clark and Mr Jones, the Home Office would appear to be institutionally racist. At the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills (BEIS) the RICS tell us they, "politically influenced" and "engaged" MPs Ministers and civil servants. Is this why their, "appointed" company - OS:Property's - solutions are broken?
The following week, unexpectedly, she turned up her emotional volume to maximum so that real anguish could be heard in her voice as she acknowledged that all MPs must have been reading the “recent heartbreaking” stories of individuals who have been in the country for decades “struggling to navigate an immigration system in a way that they should never, ever have had to”. Rudd herself had apparently not been reading accounts of these cases until a week earlier, but they were certainly on her agenda now
Q. Mrs Leadsom, Mr Clark and Mr Javid, isn't the great success of The Full English Cover-Up at the RICS, "appointed" OS:Property in part down to the fact that none of the thousands of cases appear to be on anyone's agenda?
“These people worked here for decades. In many cases, they helped to establish the National Health Service. They paid their taxes and enriched our culture. They are British in all but legal status and this should never have been allowed to happen. Both the prime minister and I have apologised to those affected and I am personally committed to resolving this situation with urgency and purpose.”
Q. Mrs Leadsom, Mr Clark and Mr Javid, when is someone from government and Ombudsman Services going to apologise to the victims of broken ADR and who in government is committed to resolving this situation with urgency and purpose?
That was on Monday; by Wednesday, called to answer questions at the home affairs select committee, she was forced to account for her puzzlingly slow decision to pay attention to these cases. “I deeply regret that I did not see it as more than individual cases that had gone wrong and that needed addressing. I did not see it as a systemic issue until very recently,” she said. “I look back with hindsight and I am surprised I did not see the shape of it sooner. Unfortunately I did not.”
Q. Mrs Leadsom, Mr Clark and Mr Javid, in 2017 nearly 90% of 1166 cases - 1049 individuals each with a story still to tell - said they were, "dissatisfied with their customer journey." Why did none of the Government's monitors raise the alarm concerning the systemic failings on the part of Ombudsman Services - is that not puzzling too?
Q. Mrs Leadsom, Mr Clark and Mr Javid, when DJS Research reported a 64% complainant dissatisfaction rate in 2011, why did no-one in Government have the foresight to see that by 2017 it would inevitably reach 90% if something radical wasn't done to rectify the appalling conveyor-belt-like breaking of, "solutions?"
It’s puzzling that she didn’t; she paid tribute to the work of the Guardian in exposing this – which suggests that she read some of the articles, which quoted Caribbean diplomats speculating that thousands could have been affected and also revealed that the Migration Observatory at Oxford University estimated that around 50,000 Commonwealth-born persons currently in the UK, who arrived before 1971, may not yet have regularised their residency status. Many left the Caribbean when their islands were still British colonies and considered themselves to be British. If she really read the articles, the possible scale was clearly set out.
Q. Mrs Leadsom, Mr Clark and Mr Javid, we were informed by the Government monitors of this Government approved scheme that with the departure of DJS Research in 2011 not only would the new researchers ask the same questions but that additional ones concerning the company's website would be asked too. Why didn't that happen?
Q. Mrs Leadsom. Mr Clark and Mr Javid, for two years there were no reports - what were the Government monitors monitoring?
She blamed herself and her department for their slow response, she said. She had asked for “some advice” before the scandal exploded on Monday 16 April, with a letter signed by 140 crossbench MPs and diplomatic anger over the snub to the Caribbean leaders. “I believe the Home Office was beginning to move into action, but too slowly and too late,” she said.
Q. Mrs Leadsom, Mr Clark and Mr Javid, for 10 years the scandal of Ombudsman Services' "broken solution" was allowed to unfold. Why did no one in Government move into action?
In her latest appearance in the Commons, summoned to an urgent question on Home Office deportations by the shadow home secretary, Diane Abbott, she was more brusque, keen to get through the by now pro forma apology and focus on the issue that Theresa May believes plays best with Conservative voters – illegal immigration. A well-choreographed sequence of Tory MPs lined up to move the focus away from the scandal of Windrush.
Q. Mrs Leadsom, Mr Clark and Mr Jones, no one from Government appears to have uttered a word, brusque or otherwise, about Smith and Jones' "broken solution." Is this because the Government doesn't believe an Ombudsman handing a complaint a, "broken solution" is in itself, scandalous?
But the tough language was tempered with another very significant announcement: her desire to introduce a “compassionate, clear and informed approach to immigration” and to put in a more “personal system” for applicants.
Q. Mrs Leadsom, Mr Clark and Mr Javid, when a private alternative redress scheme (ADR) anonymises individuals by giving them a number - ours will forever be 510458 - and then fobs them off with a, "broken solution" shouldn't the sign over their entrance read, Privater Schadensersatz Macht Frei?
If a newly compassionate immigration system is the outcome of the Windrush fiasco, then that will be a remarkably positive thing.
Q. Mrs Leadsom, Mr Clark and Mr Javid, wouldn't a future truly fair, independent and compassionate ADR system need to be brought into public ownership as the private broken solution offered by Ombudsman Services has proven to be a fiasco?
Rudd’s announcement was overshadowed by ongoing calls for her resignation from the Labour frontbench and by her stark failure to either know or want to reveal the government’s position on immigration deportation targets. But it is a significant one, and even as an aspiration which is ultimately unlikely to materialise, a compassionate, more personalised system is still a good thing to be aiming for.
Q. Mrs Leadsom, Mr Clark and Mr Javid, when Smith says his solution is broken and Jones says some complainants -1049 at the last count - are never satisfied - shouldn't they also resign?
Immigration experts were muted in their excitement about the announcement, pointing out that without repealing all the various strands of hostile environment legislation, it will be hard to introduce much compassion into a system that is designed primarily to reduce net migration.
Q. Mrs Leadsom, Mr Clark and M Javid, Consumer Focus said that by failing to adequately regulate their Members and (Un)Regulated Firms, the RICS had in effect created their very own hostile environment for consumers. Surely, if this regulator had done its job and regulated in the first place there would have been no need for it to have, "appointed" Ombudsman Services:Property to hand consumers broken solutions?
Where does the crisis go from here? There are too many angry Windrush victims and too many huge unanswered questions for the Home Office’s difficulties to be over. There is unease about the telephone helpline and there is uncertainty about how officials are going to meet their commitment to resolving all cases within two weeks of evidence being lodged. The two-week target has echoes of the three-week promise to rehouse Grenfell victims; some are still in hotels and temporary accommodation almost a year later.
Q, Mrs Leadsom, Mr Clark and Mr Javid, what do you propose to do about the thousands of victims of Smith and Jones' "broken solution?"
Everyone affected is wondering how compensation will be calculated. One woman said she would need to be repaid for three years’ lost earnings in a middle management job – a total of well over £60,000.. “I had three new job offers in that time and I wasn’t able to take any of them up. I am still paying back thousands in rent arrears because of that. How do you calculate compensation for the hours I sat waiting to talk to someone in the Home Office? I couldn’t visit my mother when she was dying in Barbados. How do you calculate that in money? I don’t even know where my mum is buried,” she said.
Q. Mrs Leadsom, Mr Clark and Mr Javid, how do you propose to compensate the victims of Smith and Jones' "broken solution?"
With her four-apology bonanza, Rudd seems to have staved off her personal career crisis for the moment, but there is little doubt in the mind of anyone who has looked at the roots of the Windrush scandal about who was really responsible.
Q. Mrs Leadsom, Mr Clark and Mr Javid, won't anyone who cares to look at the root of the Broken Solution Scandal want to know who else was in the Smith and Jones Gang?
Conservative ministers keep embarking on the undignified buck-passing routine, as they attempt to shift the blame to Labour, but the roots of all the “heartbreaking” Windrush stories lie clearly with the introduction by May of her flagship hostile immigration environment.
The fictional Alias Smith and Jones we grew up with were likeable outlaws seeking an amnesty from the governor. Present-day reality is very different.
Yours sincerely,
Steve Gilbert - Workstock Numer: 510458.
The Ombudsmans61percent Campaign is at: www.blogger.com ombudsmans61percent campaign and www.facebook.com Ombudsmans Sixtyone-percent.
Please comment and join the campaign.
Q. Mrs Leadsom, Mr Clark and Mr Javid, this is the 117th day of the year and still there has been no Annual Report from the Government approved and monitored Ombudsman Services:Property. There has been no apology for the fiasco of their, "broken solution" either. Why has a) the Ombudsman Association and b) the Government monitors permitted this to happen?
The Windrush generation “are legally here”, she said (again). People “who contributed so much … should never have experienced what they have”.
Q. Mrs Leadsom, Mr Clark and Mr Javid, legally, is a broken solution to private civil justice lawful?
But the intensity of her contrition has fluctuated markedly from day to day during this rapidly unfurling crisis. Her initial position of total indifference to the series of disturbing accounts published in the Guardian over the past six months morphed into a position of professional political regret. This came only after anger exploded when Downing Street rebuffed Caribbean leaders’ request for a meeting with the prime minister to discuss the scandal.
Q. Mrs Leadsom, Mr Clark and Mr Javid, we've sent hundreds of emails to the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills and now the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy all of which have met with total indifference. Why are you so indifferent to the plight of those victims of Smith and Jones' "broken solution?"
During her first appearance in the Commons last Monday, Rudd was calm and professional. At this point, she was merely “recognising the concerns” of “some” people in the Windrush generation and her apology was more grudging than heartfelt. “I am very sorry for any confusion or anxiety felt,” was as far as she would go – although it was already known that at least one person’s death had been attributed to the stress of trying to secure documents. Dozens more had their lives ruined by problems connected with their paperless state – denied cancer treatment, sacked, made homeless, prevented from travelling to see dying parents in the Caribbean.
Q. Mrs Leadsom, Mr Clark and Mr Javid, thanks to DJS Research's totally fair and totally independent Customer Satisfaction Reports, we know that the OS:Propety Ombudsman and her team of investigators; did not understand the complexity of property complainants, misrepresented information, arrived at decisions in an illogical manner, did not mediate or negotiate, forced complainants to go to the further representation process and then handed them eyewateringly ludicrous decisions. These victims remain a forgotten stock of work each with a number - ours is 510458 . What anxiety have they been forced to suffer? How many were made ill by their customer journey? Did any of them die? And in what ways were their lives ruined by Smith and Jones' "broken solution?"
Despite her cautious remorse, she did in passing describe her department’s treatment of the Windrush group of long-term, Caribbean-born British residents as “appalling”, admitting that their testimonies had been “terrible to hear”.
Q. Mrs Leadsom, Mr Clark and Mr Javid, nearly 90% of property complainants told MoneySavingExperts what they thought of their, "customer experience" in 2017. Why has no one in Government thought to ask them for their testimonies?
She made an extraordinarily important admission in that first appearance, saying she was “concerned that the Home Office has become too concerned with policy and strategy and sometimes loses sight of the individual”. This comment was not linked directly to the Windrush fiasco – she seemed to be making a point about the behaviour of the department in general, recognising that problems were widespread. It is a statement that she should be held to over the next few months.
Q. Mrs Leadsom, Mr Clark and Mr Javid, since the departure of DJS Research in 2011 the executives at Ombudsman Services have not once sought to ask property complainants for they thoughts on the way in which their complaints had been handed - fairly or otherwise. Have the executives not also lost sight of the individual and why was this permitted to happen?
Q. Mrs Leadsom, Mr Clark and Mr Jones, the Home Office would appear to be institutionally racist. At the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills (BEIS) the RICS tell us they, "politically influenced" and "engaged" MPs Ministers and civil servants. Is this why their, "appointed" company - OS:Property's - solutions are broken?
The following week, unexpectedly, she turned up her emotional volume to maximum so that real anguish could be heard in her voice as she acknowledged that all MPs must have been reading the “recent heartbreaking” stories of individuals who have been in the country for decades “struggling to navigate an immigration system in a way that they should never, ever have had to”. Rudd herself had apparently not been reading accounts of these cases until a week earlier, but they were certainly on her agenda now
Q. Mrs Leadsom, Mr Clark and Mr Javid, isn't the great success of The Full English Cover-Up at the RICS, "appointed" OS:Property in part down to the fact that none of the thousands of cases appear to be on anyone's agenda?
“These people worked here for decades. In many cases, they helped to establish the National Health Service. They paid their taxes and enriched our culture. They are British in all but legal status and this should never have been allowed to happen. Both the prime minister and I have apologised to those affected and I am personally committed to resolving this situation with urgency and purpose.”
Q. Mrs Leadsom, Mr Clark and Mr Javid, when is someone from government and Ombudsman Services going to apologise to the victims of broken ADR and who in government is committed to resolving this situation with urgency and purpose?
That was on Monday; by Wednesday, called to answer questions at the home affairs select committee, she was forced to account for her puzzlingly slow decision to pay attention to these cases. “I deeply regret that I did not see it as more than individual cases that had gone wrong and that needed addressing. I did not see it as a systemic issue until very recently,” she said. “I look back with hindsight and I am surprised I did not see the shape of it sooner. Unfortunately I did not.”
Q. Mrs Leadsom, Mr Clark and Mr Javid, in 2017 nearly 90% of 1166 cases - 1049 individuals each with a story still to tell - said they were, "dissatisfied with their customer journey." Why did none of the Government's monitors raise the alarm concerning the systemic failings on the part of Ombudsman Services - is that not puzzling too?
Q. Mrs Leadsom, Mr Clark and Mr Javid, when DJS Research reported a 64% complainant dissatisfaction rate in 2011, why did no-one in Government have the foresight to see that by 2017 it would inevitably reach 90% if something radical wasn't done to rectify the appalling conveyor-belt-like breaking of, "solutions?"
It’s puzzling that she didn’t; she paid tribute to the work of the Guardian in exposing this – which suggests that she read some of the articles, which quoted Caribbean diplomats speculating that thousands could have been affected and also revealed that the Migration Observatory at Oxford University estimated that around 50,000 Commonwealth-born persons currently in the UK, who arrived before 1971, may not yet have regularised their residency status. Many left the Caribbean when their islands were still British colonies and considered themselves to be British. If she really read the articles, the possible scale was clearly set out.
Q. Mrs Leadsom, Mr Clark and Mr Javid, we were informed by the Government monitors of this Government approved scheme that with the departure of DJS Research in 2011 not only would the new researchers ask the same questions but that additional ones concerning the company's website would be asked too. Why didn't that happen?
Q. Mrs Leadsom. Mr Clark and Mr Javid, for two years there were no reports - what were the Government monitors monitoring?
She blamed herself and her department for their slow response, she said. She had asked for “some advice” before the scandal exploded on Monday 16 April, with a letter signed by 140 crossbench MPs and diplomatic anger over the snub to the Caribbean leaders. “I believe the Home Office was beginning to move into action, but too slowly and too late,” she said.
Q. Mrs Leadsom, Mr Clark and Mr Javid, for 10 years the scandal of Ombudsman Services' "broken solution" was allowed to unfold. Why did no one in Government move into action?
In her latest appearance in the Commons, summoned to an urgent question on Home Office deportations by the shadow home secretary, Diane Abbott, she was more brusque, keen to get through the by now pro forma apology and focus on the issue that Theresa May believes plays best with Conservative voters – illegal immigration. A well-choreographed sequence of Tory MPs lined up to move the focus away from the scandal of Windrush.
Q. Mrs Leadsom, Mr Clark and Mr Jones, no one from Government appears to have uttered a word, brusque or otherwise, about Smith and Jones' "broken solution." Is this because the Government doesn't believe an Ombudsman handing a complaint a, "broken solution" is in itself, scandalous?
But the tough language was tempered with another very significant announcement: her desire to introduce a “compassionate, clear and informed approach to immigration” and to put in a more “personal system” for applicants.
Q. Mrs Leadsom, Mr Clark and Mr Javid, when a private alternative redress scheme (ADR) anonymises individuals by giving them a number - ours will forever be 510458 - and then fobs them off with a, "broken solution" shouldn't the sign over their entrance read, Privater Schadensersatz Macht Frei?
If a newly compassionate immigration system is the outcome of the Windrush fiasco, then that will be a remarkably positive thing.
Q. Mrs Leadsom, Mr Clark and Mr Javid, wouldn't a future truly fair, independent and compassionate ADR system need to be brought into public ownership as the private broken solution offered by Ombudsman Services has proven to be a fiasco?
Rudd’s announcement was overshadowed by ongoing calls for her resignation from the Labour frontbench and by her stark failure to either know or want to reveal the government’s position on immigration deportation targets. But it is a significant one, and even as an aspiration which is ultimately unlikely to materialise, a compassionate, more personalised system is still a good thing to be aiming for.
Q. Mrs Leadsom, Mr Clark and Mr Javid, when Smith says his solution is broken and Jones says some complainants -1049 at the last count - are never satisfied - shouldn't they also resign?
Immigration experts were muted in their excitement about the announcement, pointing out that without repealing all the various strands of hostile environment legislation, it will be hard to introduce much compassion into a system that is designed primarily to reduce net migration.
Q. Mrs Leadsom, Mr Clark and M Javid, Consumer Focus said that by failing to adequately regulate their Members and (Un)Regulated Firms, the RICS had in effect created their very own hostile environment for consumers. Surely, if this regulator had done its job and regulated in the first place there would have been no need for it to have, "appointed" Ombudsman Services:Property to hand consumers broken solutions?
Where does the crisis go from here? There are too many angry Windrush victims and too many huge unanswered questions for the Home Office’s difficulties to be over. There is unease about the telephone helpline and there is uncertainty about how officials are going to meet their commitment to resolving all cases within two weeks of evidence being lodged. The two-week target has echoes of the three-week promise to rehouse Grenfell victims; some are still in hotels and temporary accommodation almost a year later.
Q, Mrs Leadsom, Mr Clark and Mr Javid, what do you propose to do about the thousands of victims of Smith and Jones' "broken solution?"
Everyone affected is wondering how compensation will be calculated. One woman said she would need to be repaid for three years’ lost earnings in a middle management job – a total of well over £60,000.. “I had three new job offers in that time and I wasn’t able to take any of them up. I am still paying back thousands in rent arrears because of that. How do you calculate compensation for the hours I sat waiting to talk to someone in the Home Office? I couldn’t visit my mother when she was dying in Barbados. How do you calculate that in money? I don’t even know where my mum is buried,” she said.
Q. Mrs Leadsom, Mr Clark and Mr Javid, how do you propose to compensate the victims of Smith and Jones' "broken solution?"
With her four-apology bonanza, Rudd seems to have staved off her personal career crisis for the moment, but there is little doubt in the mind of anyone who has looked at the roots of the Windrush scandal about who was really responsible.
Q. Mrs Leadsom, Mr Clark and Mr Javid, won't anyone who cares to look at the root of the Broken Solution Scandal want to know who else was in the Smith and Jones Gang?
Conservative ministers keep embarking on the undignified buck-passing routine, as they attempt to shift the blame to Labour, but the roots of all the “heartbreaking” Windrush stories lie clearly with the introduction by May of her flagship hostile immigration environment.
The fictional Alias Smith and Jones we grew up with were likeable outlaws seeking an amnesty from the governor. Present-day reality is very different.
Yours sincerely,
Steve Gilbert - Workstock Numer: 510458.
The Ombudsmans61percent Campaign is at: www.blogger.com ombudsmans61percent campaign and www.facebook.com Ombudsmans Sixtyone-percent.
Please comment and join the campaign.
This blog is nice and very informative. I like this blog.
ReplyDeleteblog Please keep it up.