Do the PHSO ever respond to Justin Madders MP?

The request was partially successful.

phsothefacts Pressure Group

Dear Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman,

Justin Madders MP, Shadow Minister for Health and Care has asked the Cabinet Office another question regarding the delay in assigning caseworkers and completing investigations.

Allocation of a complaint has gone up from 29 days to 74 days and the average time from allocation to completion is now 152 days.

The response is always that as an independent body the Ombudsman will respond directly to Mr Madders. These responses, unlike the questions are not put in the public domain yet they are of great public interest.

I am making a request for the release of all correspondence between PHSO and Justin Madders over the last 12 months.

Yours faithfully,

Della Reynolds
phsothefacts Pressure Group

InformationRights, Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman

Thank you for contacting the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman’s
(PHSO) Freedom of Information and Data Protection Team. This is to confirm
we have received your request. If you have made a request for information
under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 or Environment Information
Regulations 2004, we aim to respond to your request within 20 working days
in accordance with the statutory time frames set out in both Acts. If you
have made a request for personal information held by the PHSO, your
request will be processed as a Subject Access Request under the provisions
of the Data Protection Act 2018 and we aim to respond within one calendar
month in accordance with the statutory time frame set out in the Act. We
may contact you before this time if we require further clarification or if
we need to extend the time required to complete your request.

Please note that we are currently experiencing a high demand, and might
not be able to comply with the statutory deadline for your request. Any
late responses can be referred to the Information Commissioner’s Office:

https://ico.org.uk/

For Subject Access Requests, we will send any personal information via
secure email, unless you instruct us differently. To access the
information on the email we send, you will need to sign up to our secure
email service. Details can be found on our website using the link below:
https://www.ombudsman.org.uk/about-us/co...
If you require us to post your personal information to you instead you
will need to inform us of this and confirm your current address as soon as
possible. Angharad Jackson Data Protection Officer & Assistant Director
Information Assurance Office of the Parliamentary and Health Service
Ombudsman PHSO CityGate 47-51 Mosley Street Manchester M2 3HQ
[email address]

InformationRights, Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman

3 Attachments

Dear Della Reynolds

 

Our reference: FOI 191

Your request for information

 

Thank you for your email of 28 April 2021 in which you requested
information from the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman. Your
request has been handled in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act
2000 (FOIA). We sincerely apologise for the delay in providing a response
to your request.

 

Your request:

 

Justin Madders MP, Shadow Minister for Health and Care has asked the
Cabinet Office another question regarding the delay in assigning
caseworkers and completing investigations.

 

Allocation of a complaint has gone up from 29 days to 74 days and the
average time from allocation to completion is now 152 days.

 

The response is always that as an independent body the Ombudsman will
respond directly to Mr Madders. These responses, unlike the questions are
not put in the public domain yet they are of great public interest.

 

I am making a request for the release of all correspondence between PHSO
and Justin Madders over the last 12 months.

 

Our response:

 

We can confirm that the Ombudsman did correspond with Justin Madders MP as
a result of Parliamentary Questions. We can also confirm the Ombudsman
wrote to all MPs on 15 April 2021 explaining and outlining changes made to
our service because of the pandemic. Attached are two letters to Justin
Madders MP dated 26 March and 30 April 2021, in addition to the email
mentioned above, sent to all MPs on 15 April 2021.

 

PHSO has corresponded with Mr Madders regarding other matters relating to
specific cases. Section 44 of the FOIA states that information does not
have to be disclosed if another Act of Parliament states that the
information cannot be disclosed. As the Health Service Commissioners Act
and Parliamentary Commissioners Act prevent us from releasing this
information to you, this means that we cannot provide it under Freedom of
Information law.

 

If you believe we have made an error in the way we have processed your
information request, it is open to you to request an internal review. You
can do this by writing to us by post or by email to
[1][PHSO request email]. You will need to specify what the
nature of the issue is and we can consider the matter further. Beyond
that, it is open to you to complain to the Information Commissioner’s
Office ([2]www.ico.org.uk).

 

Yours sincerely

 

Freedom of Information/Data Protection Team

Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman

E: [3][PHSO request email]

W: [4]www.ombudsman.org.uk

 

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[PHSO request email]
2. http://www.ico.org.uk/
3. mailto:[PHSO request email]
4. http://www.ombudsman.org.uk/
http://www.ombudsman.org.uk/

J Roberts left an annotation ()

'I am aware that you referred a complaint to us relating to the communication of changes in the State Pension age for women.' Rob Behrens

Information on the topic which some people might be interested in:

'50s women pensions: Flaws in the Parliamentary Ombudsman’s preliminary maladministration report ?'

https://davidhencke.com/2021/06/12/50s-w...

'Have WASPI women been let down by PHSO?'

https://phsothetruestory.com/2019/11/06/...

Information disclosed:

'In March 2020, the average waiting time for a  complaint to  be allocated  to  a  caseworker was  29 days.  

Looking at the period from 1 March 2020 to the present day:
 
•  The average waiting time for a complaint to be allocated to a caseworker was 74 days.
  
•  The average length of time from a case allocation to conclusion of  case was 152 days.' 

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/7...

J Roberts left an annotation ()

WASPI - Rob Behrens letter to Justin Madders MP 26 March 2021

'I am aware that you referred a complaint to us relating to the communication of changes in the State Pension age for women. We wrote to all complainants on this important matter in December 2020, giving an update on our investigation and explaining our approach to these cases. We sent a copy of this letter to your office on 10 December 2020. We have now received responses to our Provisional View from all parties, and we are now considering these. The time it takes to investigate complaints depends on the nature, complexity, and volume of information we have to consider. The sensitivity and seriousness of the issues involved in this investigation means that it will not conclude imminently.'

David Hencke 22/11/23:

See key paragraphs of a leaked Ombudsman letter to WASPI victims:

'In what must be the most extraordinary provisional decision by any Parliamentary Ombudsman Rob Behrens has decided NOT to make any recommendations for compensation for maladministration he found affecting 3.5 million 50s born women who had to wait an extra six years for their pensions.'

https://davidhencke.com/2023/11/22/exclu...

Related (includes link to video):

Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee

Oral evidence: Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman Annual Scrutiny 2022-23, HC 198

Tuesday 14 November 2023

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/w...