Overview
The Annual Reports are to be found at: https://www.spso.org.uk/spso-annual-reports
There have been three Ombudsmen as follows, serving in general to the year ended 31st March, and serving for eight years.
- Alice Brown: 23rd October 2002 to 2008 [6 years only]
- Jim Martin: 2008 to 2016
- Rosemary Agnew: 2016 to 2024
The SPSO was effectively created on 23 October 2002, when the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman Act 2002 came into force. It replaced:
- The Scottish Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration,
- The Health Service Commissioner for Scotland,,
- The Commissioner for Local Administration in Scotland,
- The Housing Association Ombudsman for Scotland.
The original purposes were stated as follows:
- to be open, accountable and accessible in providing the service
- to be independent, free and fair in responding to complaints
- to raise awareness of our service and promote good practice by Scottish public services.
These would appear to satisfy the Nolan principles which are discussed in the article on the Ministerial Code of Conduct.
On "Openess" the first report available on the SPSO web site is Case ref: 201100008, Dated: June 2011. For "water" it is August 2011, and was regarding a limited company [SC335567] called Waterwatch Scotland which was incorporated 20th December 2007, and Dissolved on 14th December 2012.
The question is whether the original purposes have been achieved, and if not why not, and of course at what expense.