Acknowledgement
I am grateful to Rhoda James for her helpful comments on an earlier draft of this piece.
Notes
1. Otherwise known as the Housing, Planning, Local Government and the Regions Committee.
2. In Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, the equivalent work of the LGO is performed by the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman, the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales and the Northern Ireland Commissioner for Complaints.
3. The figure is an approximation, but is derived from the 2,405 complaints that the LGO deemed were outside jurisdiction, the 4,713 complaints that were premature, and the 2,892 complaints where the LGO used their discretion not to pursue the matter (Local Government Ombudsman, Citation2005, p. 27).
4. These are known in ombudsman jargon as ‘comebacks’.
5. Note that the Financial Services Ombudsman approaches complaints slightly differently, in that he employs an independent assessor to consider complaints about the service of the ombudsman, albeit the assessor cannot reconsider the complaint itself (Financial Services Ombudsman, Citation2005, pp. 46–48).
6. Jerry White and Tony Redmond.