Source · Select Committees · Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee
Recommendation 32
32
Accepted
Paragraph: 100
We recommend that the PHSO increases its engagement with departmental Select Committees to encourage them...
Recommendation
We recommend that the PHSO increases its engagement with departmental Select Committees to encourage them to scrutinise PHSO reports laid before Parliament, particularly when those reports relate to findings against individual departments and public bodies under their remit.
Government Response Summary
The government states that PHSO maintains a programme of regular engagement with Parliament, including Select Committees, and shares information with Select Committee clerks about key themes or recurring issues identified in complaints.
Paragraph Reference:
100
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
PHSO maintains a programme of regular engagement with Parliament, including Select Committees responsible for scrutinising the NHS and those Government departments which receive a higher number of complaints. We share information with Select Committee clerks about any key themes or recurring issues we have identified in complaints about the public bodies in their remit. PHSO welcomes PACAC’s support for these engagements. While departmental Select Committees may look at systemic issues, Parliamentary protocol means that most departmental Select Committees are unable to examine individual cases. This risks becoming problematic in those very small number of cases where a public body fails to comply with PHSO’s recommendations. In the rare instances where a public body does not comply, PHSO has statutory powers to bring a case to Parliament’s attention for further scrutiny. These powers have been used only a handful of times, as the great majority of public bodies act on the recommendations that follow PHSO’s investigations. Since the first case of non-compliance was brought to Parliament’s attention in the 1970s, PACAC has considered these cases on behalf of Parliament, scrutinising the relevant Government department in detail and seeking an explanation for its failure to comply with PHSO’s recommendations. As Professor Robert Thomas, Professor of Public Law at the University of Manchester, has set out, it is “necessary and important for the select committee to continue this form of scrutiny. Government should not be able evade being held to account for its failures and people who have suffered injustice should not be let down for a second time by government”. Any departure from this arrangement would “amount to a radical departure by the committee from its long-established approach”.