Ombudsman Services. The OFT. The Ombudsman Association. Consumer Protection. (62)

Dear Reader,
There needs to be an urgent public inquiry into the failure of RICS to regulate and the catastrophic failure of private ADR to deliver justice in this country.

To the EU Justice Sub-Committee:

Ombudsman Services Part 4: The Full English Cover-Up. (62)

62) Ombudsman Services. The OFT. The Ombudsman Association. Consumer Protection.

Dear Baroness Kennedy of the Shaws,

Your witness provided no detail on how his model of ADR complied (or more accurately, did not comply) with the OFT's criteria.

Q12             Lord Polak: May I push you a little further on this and perhaps push you to be slightly more specific? Are there aspects of the EU’s consumer protection rules that you would like to see retained, and are there any that we in Britain now, given the decision that we have made, will be quite happy to say au revoir to? Which ones are you happy that we are going to get rid of, if any?

Lewis Shand Smith: In some ways, the ADR directive and the regulations do not go far enough. That legislation is actually quite weak and does not yet provide the kind of protection that I think people are looking for.

The Ombudsmans61percent Campaign: And an excellent example of that regulatory failure would be the RICS apparent inability to adequately regulate their Members and (Un)Regulated Firms in the first instance. If they regulated in the first place there would be no need for farcical ombudsmen and their farcical schemes) Instead RICS permit their surveyors to pass their problems over to their "appointed" Property Ombudsman who duly administers the coup de grace.

The kind of protection people are looking for?

Q. Baroness Kennedy of the Shaws, why don't the employees of Ombudsman Services and The Ombudsman Association enjoy the protection of a Whistleblowing Policy?

They would then enjoy the protection of the Human Rights Act.

Q. Baroness Kennedy of the Shaws, why weren't consumers protected from a Property Ombudsman who arrived at decisions in an illogical manner?

Q. Baroness Kennedy of the Shaws, why didn't the Government monitors of this Government approved scheme protect consumers from a Property Ombudsman who arrived at decisions in an illogical manner?

The OFT's Criterion 8 states: "The scheme's operation and its procedures must be transparent.

The scheme must also: Ensure that complainants are provided with clear, comprehensible, and accurate information on the procedures, possible outcomes, avenues for appeal or review of the decision and whether the outcome is binding."

Q. Baroness Kennedy of the Shaws, where do Ombudsman Services tell complainants how they can appeal their Ombudsman's often ludicrous decisions and why is this data no longer included in the annual Customer Satisfaction Survey?

The OFT's Criterion 10 states: "There must be a range of awards which take into account the level and types of detriment caused. Requirement to meet this criterion - the level and applicability of awards must be published."

Q. Baroness Kennedy of the Shaws, why don't Ombudsman Services comply with this OFT/Government requirement and how does failure to comply protect the consumer?

Criterion 14 states: "The scheme's effectiveness must be monitored on a regular basis.

- Performance indicators on the schemes' operation to be agreed with the OFT.

- Scheme operator to provide information on Customer Satisfaction Surveys and performance indicators to the OFT at specified intervals."

This ceased with the departure of DJS Research.

Q. Baroness Kennedy of the Shaws, how does this failure by Ombudsman Services to comply with the OFT's criterion, protect the consumer?

Our own Government called for evidence on some aspects of it and the response has not yet been published.

The Ombudsmans61percent Campaign:
Q. Baroness Kennedy of the Shaws, we've sent hundreds of Blogs and pages of evidence to the government. Why haven't they merited a response and why has the Government allowed consumers to take their complaints to A Broken Solution?

Q. Baroness Kennedy of the Shaws, why didn't Mr Shand Smith answer the 100 questions we tried to ask him?

If he had he might have understood why his Solution was Broken.

Yours sincerely,

Steve Gilbert - Workstock Number - 510458.

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