REPORT OF THE

STANDARDS COMMITTEE

PART II

OMBUDSMAN'S ANNUAL REPORT 2002/03

1. The Committee has considered the Local Government Ombudsman's annual report for 2002/03, which sets out summary information and statistics relating to complaints against each individual Local Authority. This year the report is accompanied by an annual letter which analyses and comments in more detail on those complaints relating to the County Council.

2. There has been a 4% decrease nationally in the number of complaints made to the Ombudsman in 2002/03 compared to the previous year. In Hampshire the Ombudsman determined 41 complaints against the County Council, compared with 56 in 2001/02. These figures are considerably lower than those for comparable County Councils. The Committee is therefore pleased to be able to report that numbers of complaints to the Ombudsman remained low in relation to the number of decisions the County Council takes on behalf of its citizens, and that the Ombudsman has discontinued investigations of all complaints against the County Council and issued no reports relating to complaints against the County Council.

3. The subject matter of complaints dealt with by the Ombudsman ranges across the County Council's services - education, planning, highways, school admission appeals and Social Services. It is, therefore, creditable that the Ombudsman has established no cases of maladministration or injustice, and has expressed his satisfaction at the way in which many complaints are dealt with effectively at local level under the County Council's own complaints procedure.

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