Source · Select Committees · Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee
Recommendation 2
2
Paragraph: 14
In May 2020, the PHSO reported to the Committee that it had experienced an increase...
Conclusion
In May 2020, the PHSO reported to the Committee that it had experienced an increase of 13 per cent in demand compared to the previous financial year. Due to the introduction of a new digital casework management system, comparisons between years were not possible. This means that the 13 per cent figure cannot be evidenced. The PHSO made no effort to proactively correct the record. If witnesses provide evidence to select committees which is later demonstrated not to be evidence, those witnesses should correct the record. This responsibility is especially applicable for bodies that are scrutinised by those select committees.
Paragraph Reference:
14
Government Response
Acknowledged
HM Government
Acknowledged
PHSO is open and transparent about the performance of the service we provide. The information we provided to the Committee in May 2020 was and is correct. Accordingly, the Ombudsman wrote to the Committee on 25 January 2021 to highlight the concerns we had about the drafting of paragraphs 13 and 14 of the Committee’s scrutiny report, which implied that we had not been transparent when reporting about enquiries to PHSO during 2019–20. The Ombudsman first wrote to the Committee Chair about this issue on 30 October 2020. In this letter, and during the oral evidence hearing on 23 November 2020, it was made clear that this was not data from a full financial year. It was instead a comparison between the number of enquiries to PHSO in the first eight months of 2019–20 (prior to the installation of a new IT system) and the number of enquiries to PHSO during the same eight-month period the year before, when a like-for-like comparison could be made. Consequently, there was no reason to correct the record as the information provided remains accurate. The Committee Chair wrote to the Ombudsman on 26 January 2021 to confirm that “the