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The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (the Ombudsman) is an independent crown servant appointed by the Queen. The role of the Ombudsman is to provide a service to the public by undertaking independent investigations into complaints that government departments, a range of other public bodies in the UK, and the NHS in England have not acted properly or fairly or have provided a poor service.
The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman are separate functions although they are lodged with the same individual. The legislation that governs both functions can be found here.
To support her, the Ombudsman has established an office of casework and corporate staff. The structure of the Office of the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) can be found in our organisation chart.
We aim to provide an independent, high quality complaints handling service that rights individual wrongs, drives improvements in public services and informs public policy. Our values shape our behaviour, both as an organisation and as individuals working in PHSO, and incorporate our ‘Principles of Good Administration’.
We publish an Annual Report of our work the latest of which can be found here.
The governance arrangements for the Ombudsman and her office can be found in our Governance Statement.
The independence of the Ombudsman and her office from government and the bodies within her jurisdiction is central to our ability to investigate complaints impartially and fairly, and be authoritative in the conclusions we reach. That independence is enshrined in the legislation that governs both the Parliamentary and the Health Service Ombudsman. To ensure that this works in practice, whilst at the same time enabling us to access the level of routine support that any public body requires we have established a Statement of Responsibilities with those bodies in the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction who also provide key support and services to us.
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