Part of the debate – in the House of Lords am 3:30 pm ar 16 Mawrth 2015.
My Lords, first, I take the opportunity to thank the Minister, my noble friend Lady Jolly and other noble Lords for their input into this Bill. I think it is very important. I take issue with the noble and gallant Lord, Lord Stirrup, because, when my colleagues in the other place asked me if I had any problems during earlier stages of the passage of this Bill in this House, with the Bill having started in your Lordships’ House before moving to the other place, I said that one thing that I spoke about, on which they spoke in the other place, was that the ombudsman would be able to look only at the process rather than the detail. I believed at that time, during the earlier stages of the Bill in this House, that the ombudsman should, in certain circumstances, have the ability to do so—but, as my noble friend said, this is after it has been through all the chains of command, and it is not meant to usurp any of those points.
I am very pleased with the first amendment which, as my noble friend said, is to do with the substance and merit of the complaint, not just the process. That gives some teeth to the new ombudsman, although I hope that my noble friend will address the point made by the noble and gallant Lord as to the number of cases that might build up. I am very pleased with the earlier amendments to the Bill—the later ones are purely of a technical nature.
A further point that I hope that the Minister will deal with is the number of cases in the pipeline. My belief is that there are about 1,000 cases waiting to be heard, which gives some credit and support to what the noble and gallant Lord said. Those cases will be heard under the old process, as I understand it, rather than under the new one; in other words, the ombudsman would be able to look only at the process, not at the substance. That is all very well, but when the complaint is not allowed under the old process, does the complainant have the ability to ask for it to come back under the new Act, as it will be, allowing them to look at the detail? In discussions with the Bill team, I was told that that was not the case and that once it had been allowed to go forward under the old process they would not be able to look at the substance. What would stop the complainant making a new, slightly different, complaint under the new process, thus taking advantage of the ombudsman and her staff to look into the detail? I hope that my noble friend will be able to deal with that when he replies.
The unanswered questions in the Bill are more to do with the cases in the pipeline and any transitional arrangements that need to be made rather than the very welcome amendments that have come from the other place and which I support.