Recommendation 1

The Committee notes the actions taken by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman to ensure continuing services to the public in difficult and unprecedented circumstances throughout the pandemic. However, the Committee notes the substantial backlog which has developed as a result. Whilst action is being taken to reduce this, we remain concerned at the impact of delays upon those using the services of the PHSO. The Committee was also concerned to learn that changes to case-handling of level 1 and level 2 health cases have not been as clearly communicated to the public or Members of Parliament as they could have been.