The Public Services Ombudsman for Wales (Welsh: Ombwdsmon Gwasanaethau Cyhoeddus Cymru) was established by section 1(1) of the Public Services Ombudsman (Wales) Act 2005. The Public Services Ombudsman for Wales brings together the jurisdictions of various offices he replaced, namely the Local Government Ombudsman for Wales, the Health Service Ombudsman for Wales, the Welsh Administration Ombudsman and the Social Housing Ombudsman for Wales.
Public Services Ombudsman for Wales
The Ombudsman has a dual role. Firstly, under the above Act, he investigates complaints by members of the public concerning maladministration, failure in a relevant service or failure to provide a relevant service by any "listed authority" in Wales. Secondly, under the Local Government Act 2000, he is responsible for policing ethical standards in local authorities.
The Ombudsman is appointed by the Monarch. The current Ombudsman is Nick Bennett who was appointed in August 2014.[1]
Part of the Ombudsman's role is to investigates complaints that members of local government bodies have behaved wrongly.
The Ombudsman has issued statutory guidance known as Guidance for members of county and county borough councils, fire and rescue authorities and national park authorities,[2] and Guidance from the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales for members of community councils.[3][4] Each local authority must adopt a Code of Conduct.
The Ombudsman has power to investigate any complaint referred to him. If he concludes that there is evidence which warrants doing so, he will send a formal report either to the authority's standards committee or to the Adjudication Panel for Wales.[5] It will be for the authority or the Panel to decide if the code of conduct has been broken and if so, what penalty to impose on the member concerned. The maximum penalty the Panel may impose is five years’ disqualification from office.
Those who are subject to such supervision are the following types of authority in Wales and the members of any of them:
