PARLIAMENTARY
COMMISSIONER FOR ADMINISTRATION (PCA)
ance about
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This leaflet has been prepared to give general the functions and scope of the PCA and the w his office operates. It is not intended to be exhaustive but it explains the main provisions of the Parliamentary Commissioner Act 1967.
Functions and Scope
1 Government Departments only. The function of the PCA is to investigate complaints referred to him by Members of the House of Commons from members of the public who claim to have sustained injustice in consequence of maladministration in connection with administrative action taken by or on behalf of Government Departments. Nearly all Government Departments are subject to investigation; the full list is contained in Schedule 2 to the Act, which is reproduced as Annex A of this leaflet.
2 Actions taken by other public bodies (such as local authorities, the police and nationalised industries) are outside the PCA's scope.
3 Government Department actions excluded. Certain types of action by Departments are excluded from investigation. These are set out in Schedule 3 to the Act reproduced as Annex B. Examples of important exclusions are: Government contracts; Hospitals; personnel questions of members of the armed forces and other public servants.
4 Recourse to tribunals and courts. The PCA cannot investigate any matter in respect of which the person aggrieved has exercised a right of appeal to a tribunal or has taken proceedings in a court of law. Normally, he will not investigate if the person aggrieved has or had a remedy by way of appeal to a tribunal or proceedings in a court of law, but he has discretion to act, exceptionally, where he is satisfied that there are special circumstances which have prevented the use of such a remedy.
5 Time limit. Unless the PCA decides that there are special circumstances which make it proper for him to make an exception, the complaint must have been made to a Member of the House of Commons within 12 months of the time when the person aggrieved first had notice of the matters alleged in the complaint.
6 Access to information. Parliament has given the PCA full powers of investigation into matters that are within his scope. He may obtain information from such persons and make such enquiries as he thinks fit. He has full access to Government Departments. Section 8(1) of the Act gives him power to 'require any Minister, officer or member of a Department or any other person who in his opinion can furnish relevant information or documents to furnish any such information or produce any such document'.
7 Reports. The end product of the PCA's case work is to report the results of an investigation to the Member who referred the complaint. The PCA will also make an annual report, and if he thinks fit interim reports, to Parliament on the performance of his functions, and he may make special reports to Parliament upon cases of maladministration where it appears to him that the tice has not been or will not be remedied.
8 Privilege. For purposes of the law of defamation, anything the PCA says in his reports to Parliament or to individual Members is absolutely privileged.
Source and Form of Complaints
9 The member of the public who makes a complaint to a MP intended for the PCA may be either an individual or any body of persons, so long as they are not either a local authority or nationalised industry or other public body.
10 Normally complaints must be made by the person aggrieved himself, though exceptions may be allowed if that person has died or is for any reason unable to act for himself.
11
The person aggrieved must be a person who is resident, or was at the time of his death resident, in the United Kingdom, or was present in the United Kingdom when the action complained of took place, or whose complaint relates to rights or obligations which accrued in the United Kingdom.
12
The PCA can take no action on a complaint received direct from a member of the public. It must be made in writing to a Member of the House of Commons, and include:
(a) a statement that the person making the complaint
gives his consent for the Member to refer it to the PCA; (b) the name and full address of the complainant;
(c) the identity of the Department against whose action the
complaint is made; and
(d) a statement of the circumstances in which the
complainant claims to have sustained injustice.
Investigation Procedure
13
Stages of investigation. A case received by the PCA from a Member may be expected to pass through the following stages:
(a) examination to decide whether the case is within the
PCA's jurisdiction;
(b) investigation;
(c) report on the case by the PCA to the Member from
whom it was received.
14 Privacy. When the PCA investigates, the Act requires the proceedings to be held in private. For the purpose of his investigations he has powers to examine Departments' internal papers and records and to take written and oral evidence from anyone whom he considers can provide relevant information. The extent to which these powers are
used in practice depends on the circumstances of each complaint.
15 In the course of his investigations the PCA may need to seek further information from the complainant or other persons concerned. As far as possible such information will be obtained by correspondence. Otherwise, the PCA's officers may visit the person concerned or ask “ person concerned to attend for interview.
16 Expenses. If the PCA requires a person concerned in an investigation to incur expenses (for example, by asking him to attend for an interview), the PCA may reimburse expenses properly incurred and pay compensation for loss of time.
17 Legal costs. As regards legal costs, the Act lays it upon the PCA to determine whether any persons may be represented by Counsel, Solicitor, or otherwise. If the PCA does so determine, he may consider a payment towards the legal costs in that case. It is expected, however, that such cases will be very exceptional, and that the informal nature of a normal investigation need not involve the persons concerned in legal or other representation.
The Commissioner's Relations with the Public
18 Enquiries about cases. The PCA will not accept enquiries from the Press or public about particular cases. There are provisions in the Act prohibiting him from divulging information obtained in the course of his investigations, except for the purpose of his reports to MPs and to Parliament.
19 Enquiries about PCA's jurisdiction. The PCA will answer general enquiries from the public about his jurisdiction, e.g. whether a particular Government Department or a particular type of action by a Government Department is within his scope. But other enquiries about jurisdiction, especially on matters where the exercise of the Commissioner's discretion is involved, cannot be answered without some measure of investigation into the circumstances of particular cases. Members of the public must therefore expect to be told by the Commissioner's Office, in reply to such enquiries, that the point can only be dealt with on the basis of a specific complaint referred to the Commissioner by a Member of Parliament.
Office of the Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration
Church House
Great Smith Street. London SW1
01-799 6551