The Legal Services Ombudsman:- 3rd Floor Sunlight House Quay Street Manchester M3 3JZ

Lo-call number 0845 601 0794

Tel: 0161 236 9532 Fax: 0161 832 5446 E-mail: enquiries.olso@gtnet.gov.uk

Tel: 0161 839 7262 Fax: 0161 832 5446

E-mail: lso@olso.gsi.gov.uk Website:www.olso.org

Lo-call Number: 0845 6010794 (Charged at local rates and available nationally)

The Annual Report of the Legal Services Ombudsman for England and Wales, Zahida Manzoor CBE, Taking up the Challenge 2002/2003 , has now been published. You may obtain a copy from The Stationery Office although I doubt if it will be free. It will also be published on their website, www.olso.org . Zahida Manzoor is in favour of an independent body for complaints handling.

Ann Abraham has left to become the Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration and Health Service. Mr Paul Salvidge became the acting Ombudsman. The Lord Chancellor has now appointed Ms Zahida Manzoor CBE to take over on 3rd March 2003 as the Legal Services Ombudsman for England and Wales.

Ms Manzoor, director of her own management consultancy company, has served on both the NHS Policy Board and the Commission for Racial Equality and has chaired Bradford Health Authority and the NHS's Northern and Yorkshire regional executive. In 1992 she was recognised as Yorkshire Asian Business Personality of the Year and in 1999 she was voted National Asian Woman of the Year.

The Ombudsman's primary role is to investigate the way that the OSS have dealt with complaints. She does have the discretion to extend her investigation to include the matter which was the subject of the original complaint to the OSS but, in previous years, this has only been considered necessary in less than a third of the cases." Last year, 2002, she handled 1,500 complaints.

Previously she has noted as recurring themes:

solicitors continuing communication failures
solicitors failure to embrace the concept of client care: defensiveness and refusal to admit mistakes
apparent reluctance to investigate on the part of the OSS
delay, confusion and poor communication by the OSS
failure of the OSS to provide adequate redress
gaps in the rules of professional conduct

Commemts on a Consultation Paper of the Public Sector Ombudsman in England were asked for by the end of September2000. The LSO seems mostly excluded from these proposals. Free copies of the Comments on the Consultation Paper could be obtained - and perhaps still can be - from the Modernising Public Services Group, Admiralty Arch, the Mall. London SW1A. It apparently recommends:

(i) that complaints can be made in any medium

(ii) that there should be discussions

(iii) that complainants should be given a copy of a draft report before the final report.

The LSO does not provide a draft report. Her Office asks the OSS for the complainant's file but it is not possible to get a list of the material that is put before her. There is no discussion. Invariably, although if there is a fundamental error in the report that might be grounds for re-opening the matter, the Report is final.

If you think that the complainant should receive a list and a chronology of the complaint, please e-mail.

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