This is the governance statement taken from our annual report 2025 to 2026.
Introduction
This governance statement sets out the governance, risk management and internal control arrangements for the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman. It applies to the financial year 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026.
Statutory position
The Parliamentary Commissioner Act 1967 and the Health Commissioners Act 1993, respectively, define the statutory roles of the Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration (the Parliamentary Ombudsman) and Health Service Commissioner (the Health Service Ombudsman). These two roles are vested in one individual post as the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman.
Governance structure
As Accounting Officer, I am responsible for the sound governance and effective internal control of the Ombudsman service.
I was formally appointed on 26 June 2025 and joined the organisation on a full-time basis on 1 August 2025. In the period between 1 April and 26 June 2025, there was no Ombudsman in post due to unforeseen delays in the appointment process led by Parliament. The timing of my appointment in advance of joining the organisation allowed the vital work of the organisation to continue and, in particular, to enable our teams to consider cases, take action where appropriate and, in so doing, give service users access to justice. During this time, Polly Curtis, senior independent Board member, chaired the Board. In the intervening period until I took up the role full-time in August 2025, I worked closely with the Executive Team and the Board to take formal assurance on the controls for delegated casework decision-making.
Rebecca Hilsenrath KC (Hon), Chief Executive Officer, was Acting Ombudsman for the accounting year to 31 March 2025. Rebecca has, together with the Board, the Audit and Risk Assurance Committee and the Executive Team, provided assurance to me that the content of this governance statement, as far as it relates to the period before I joined the organisation, is an accurate reflection of the period before my tenure as Ombudsman.
In law, the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman is a corporation sole and has a personal jurisdiction. This is not consistent with the requirements of good governance. Therefore, a unitary Board is in place to strengthen the governance of the organisation. My executive responsibilities, as a corporation sole, are thus exercised personally as an individual but also aided by means of defined and corporate arrangements that allow for proper scrutiny. As Chair of the Board for most of the financial year 2025 to 2026, I promoted collective decision-making. I reserved the right, given the statutory role, to depart from the Board’s decisions but only in exceptional circumstances and with a commitment to put reasons in writing. This right was not exercised in 2025 to 2026.
As Ombudsman, I have a statutory responsibility for individual cases. To make sure that this responsibility is exercised within a clear framework of oversight, a detailed scheme of delegated authority of casework is in place, which includes two deputy ombudsman appointments: Rebecca Hilsenrath KC (Hon), Chief Executive Officer, and Karl Banister, Director of Operations, Legal and Clinical. The Ombudsman Assurance Team, which is independent of the casework operation, provides organisational assurance by reviewing decisions where it appears we may have got something wrong, and by providing assurance on cases escalated to me. The Ombudsman Assurance Team also supports organisational learning and improvement by identifying themes and repeat issues arising from casework and providing its assurance to me directly, with a clear route to escalate serious or repeat issues.
I act personally in complex cases and where we identify serious or repeated mistakes that may have system-wide relevance. The Board considers overall casework productivity and demand management and the overall risk inherent in our casework, but not individual case outcomes.
As Accounting Officer, I am accountable to Parliament for the stewardship of our resources. I have delegated executive responsibility to the Chief Executive Officer for effective financial control arrangements as Accountable Officer. This allows me to have a separate accountable person charged with stewardship and probity for our use of public money.
I discharge my responsibility through assurance from the Chief Executive Officer and the Executive Team, and through assurance and challenge by the Board and its committees.
Paula Sussex
Accounting Officer, Ombudsman and Chair
Our Governance Framework
Download the Governance Framework (PDF 643KB)
Register of Interests
The interests of the non-executive and executive Board members are recorded in our Register of Interests (PDF 184KB). These details are updated annually and as required.