Ombudsman open to running national appeals body for standards complaints, says chief executive

Speaking during a question and answer session at a talk at the Lawyers in Local Government (LLG) Spring Conference on Friday (6 June), Julie Edwards said the Ombudsman was in discussions about taking on the responsibility but said it would present challenges around capacity and speed.

The Government launched a consultation on changes to the standards regime in December last year, which proposed introducing tougher sanctions for councillors, including suspensions.

The consultation said that in the event a councillor is suspended, they should have the chance to appeal the decision and suggested introducing a national body to handle any appeals.

Speaking at the session in Bristol, Paul Hoey, who was previously Director of Standards for England, said he "would suspect" that the Government aims to establish a body similar to the Standards Commission for Scotland, which has sanctioning powers and issues guidance, alongside hearing appeals.

It is not clear what the Government's intentions are yet, but some have suggested the Ombudsman takes on the role of appeals body.

Commenting on the Ombudsman's position from the audience, Julie Edwards said: "Certainly we believe that there should be a national appeals body – and we do think that consistency is important and absolutely say a huge part of that is the guidance, not just the decisions."

She later added: "Certainly, we are open to it and are having those discussions, had discussions, continue to have those discussions."

However, she noted that running an appeals service would involve challenges around waiting times and capacity.

"We are very mindful of the speed needed here because if someone is suspended, there's no democratic representation.

"We get things through as quickly as we can", she said, commenting on the watchdog's current remit, "but [handling appeals] would be a very different model for us.

“We also would need to decide on a substantive issue, not just the process that had been followed."

She added that taking on appeals decisions involved risks to the Ombudsman's independent image.

Edwards suggested that the Government has yet to commit to an approach, noting that there was "no sense in the conversation we're having that there's a decision made behind the scenes that they're going in any particular direction".

Adam Carey