BY EMAIL
12 September 2022
Dear R M Crorie,
Reference: FOI 418 Freedom of Information request
Thank you for your email, which we received on 30 August. Your request has been
handled under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
You asked us:
Do you accept complaints referred to you by other Ombudsman services or do you, like
the Pensions Ombudsman Service, refuse such referrals and require complainants to
complete your own complaints forms even when the referred complaint contains all
necessary information for the complaint to be investigated?
Our response:
The information you have requested is available on our website at the following addresses:
https://www.ppo.gov.uk/investigations/make-complaint/how-to-make-a-complaint-dvd/
https://s3-eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/ppo-prod-storage-
1g9rkhjhkjmgw/uploads/2021/12/PPO-2021-Terms-of-Reference-with-cover.pdf
Paragraph 14 of the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman’s Terms of Reference confirms
that the Ombudsman will normally only act on eligible complaints from individuals and not
on those from organisations, such as other Ombudsmen, unless the individual is deceased
or unable to act on their own behalf.
I hope that this is helpful.
You have the right to appeal against our response if you think it is incorrect. Details can be
found in the ‘How to Appeal’ section attached at the end of this letter.
Yours sincerely,
Thomas Redmond
Knowledge and Information Management Officer
Email
: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxx.xxx.xx
Third Floor, 10 South Colonnade
Email: xxxx@xxx.xxx.xx
T l 020 7633 4100
Canary Wharf, London E14 4PU
Web: www.ppo.gov.uk
The Prisons and Probation Ombudsman (PPO) carries out
independent investigations into complaints and deaths in custody. The detailed role and responsibilities of the PPO
are set out in our office
’s Terms of Reference. The PPO has three main duties:
• to
investigate complaints made by prisoners, young people in detention (prisons
and secure training centres), offenders under probation supervision and individuals
detained under immigration powers (detained individuals)
• to
investigate deaths of prisoners, young people in detention, approved premises’
residents and detained individuals due to any cause, including any apparent
suicides and natural causes
• to
investigate deaths of
recently released prisoners that occur within 14 days of
release from prison (except homicide)
The purpose of these investigations is
to understand what happened,
to correct
injustices and
to identify learning for the organisations whose actions we oversee so
that the PPO makes a significant contribution to safer, fairer custody and offender
supervision.
We may use or share your data only to the necessary extent when conducting our independent
investigations in the exercise of our official authority. We will share your data with third parties (e.g. the
prison) in order to make sure the information is accurate; to prevent or detect failings; and to identify lessons
learnt. We may sometimes need to share your data with third parties if required by law. We only keep your
personal data for as long as it is needed, as set out in our data retention policy. If you need any further
information about how your data is used, please contact us.
Third Floor, 10 South Colonnade
Email: xxxx@xxx.xxx.xx
T l 020 7633 4100
Canary Wharf, London E14 4PU
Web: www.ppo.gov.uk
How to Appeal
Internal Review
If you are not satisfied with this response, you have the right to an internal review. The
handling of your request will be looked at by someone who was not responsible for the
original case, and they will make a decision as to whether we answered your request
correctly.
If you would like to request a review, please write or send an email to the Prisons and
Probation Ombudsman’s office
within two months of the date of this letter, at the
following address:
Prisons and Probation Ombudsman
Third Floor
10 South Colonnade
Canary Wharf
London
E14 4PU
E-mail: xxxx@xxx.xxx.xx
Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO)
If you remain dissatisfied after an internal review decision, you have the right to apply to
the Information Commissioner’s Office. The Commissioner is an independent regulator
who has the power to direct us to respond to your request differently, if he considers that
we have handled it incorrectly.
You can contact the ICO at the following address:
Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Internet address: https://ico.org.uk/
Third Floor, 10 South Colonnade
Email: xxxx@xxx.xxx.xx
T l 020 7633 4100
Canary Wharf, London E14 4PU
Web: www.ppo.gov.uk
