Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman
Thirlwall Inquiry · Thirlwall Inquiry Final Report · Issued 15 September 2026 · Addressed to: The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman
Government responseDepartment of Health and Social Care: No response yet (Sep 2026)
DeliveryNo statement from The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman found
Recommendation, verbatim from the inquiry
●Inquiry recommendation, Chapter 31
The functions of the National Guardian’s Office should be taken over by the Parliamentary
and Health Service Ombudsman in England. The Ombudsman’s powers must be increased
to include:
a. investigating complaints that whistleblowing in the NHS has not been dealt
with adequately
b. assisting whistleblowers by referring their concerns to the relevant NHS bodies
and overseeing the response.
Thirlwall Inquiry, Thirlwall Inquiry Final Report · 15 Sep 2026 Source PDF, page 8 →
Published evidence summary
AI-generated evidence summary
The Inquiry asked the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman to take over whistleblowing oversight functions. In September 2026, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care stated that the government "will, of course, consider the entire report and set out a full response" (Department of Health and Social Care response, Sep 2026). The Minister gave this oral statement on the day the report was published, naming neither this recommendation nor the Ombudsman or the National Guardian's Office (Department of Health and Social Care response, Sep 2026). The record holds nothing dated later than the response of September 2026 (Department of Health and Social Care response, Sep 2026).
Sources
AI-generated summary of the record on this page, checked by a second model and automatic checks, 2 Oct 2026.
Government response
●Department of Health and Social Care · No response yet · 15 Sep 2026
No formal government response published. The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care's oral statement of 15 September 2026, made on the day the Inquiry's report was published, names neither this recommendation nor the National Guardian's Office or the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman. It says the government "will, of course, consider the entire report and set out a full response". No later government response to this recommendation was found in the sources searched on 28 September 2026.
Delivery
No statement on delivery from The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman has been found in the sources searched. This is separate from the response above.
How this page is built
The recommendation and the government responses are verbatim from primary documents. Delivery statements and other bodies' findings are shown in their own words, each with its source. The summary is written by this site and labelled as such. The Index does not paraphrase sources or characterise intent; it records what has been published.