Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman announces plans to retire
08 December 2010
Ann Abraham has announced today that she plans to retire as Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman towards the end of 2011.
She has advised the Chair of the Public Administration Select Committee, Bernard Jenkin, and the Cabinet Secretary, Sir Gus O’Donnell, of her plans and asked them to set in train the process for appointing her successor.
Ann Abraham said:
‘As Ombudsman, it is a great privilege to serve both Parliament and the public by helping to put things right when public bodies have not acted properly or fairly, or have provided a poor service. My Office has a clear and busy agenda over the next twelve months, with some important work in the pipeline. We stand well equipped to deliver this while the process of appointing my successor gets underway.’
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Notes
- Ann Abraham took up her appointment as Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman on 4 November 2002.
- Ann Abraham holds two statutory appointments: The Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration and the Health Service Commissioner for England. Both appointments have always been held by the same person.
- The Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration and the Health Service Commissioner for England are appointed by Letters Patent by Her Majesty the Queen.
- The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman is paid as though he or she were a Permanent Secretary in the Home Civil Service at the point on the range that equates to the salary of an English High Court Judge, currently £172,753.
- When Ann Abraham was appointed there was no fixed term for the appointment of the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman other than a provision that the Office must be vacated by the Ombudsman ‘on completing the year of service in which he or she attains the age of 65 years’. The legislation has since been amended and Ann Abraham’s successor will be appointed for a non-renewable fixed term of no more than 7 years.
- Ann Abraham was born on 25 August 1952. Prior to her current appointment she was Legal Services Ombudsman for England and Wales and Chief Executive of the National Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux (now Citizens Advice). Before that she held various posts in the Housing Corporation and in local government.
