grant from the Leverhulme foundation had made it possible for extensive research to be carried out into the effectiveness of the system of consultative councils for the redress of grievances against nationalised industries, including the B.B.C. and the I.B.A.
Alternative systems were considered, but our committee concluded that it would be better to improve the existing arrangements than to devise new ones.
The research showed that the greatest need was for the consultative councils to be more widely known, more accessible, more effective in providing remedies and more understandable to the public at large. The proposals designed to help to achieve these objects covered such matters as standardization, access, publicity, staffing and coverage.
Our committee felt however that the greatest need was that the consultative councils should be independent both in appearance and reality, and for this reason the most substantial recommendation is to strengthen the independence of the present grievance redressing machinery by establishing a Nationalised Industries and Agencies Commissioner (N.I.A.C.). His task would be to investigate and report in cases where the complainant was not satisfied with the outcome of a consultative council's action or the subsequent response of the statutory agency. He would be an officer of Parliament reporting to Parliament. He should have power to make a report to the Minister supervising the particular statutory agency, and to recommend that the Minister should direct the agency to take action either to remedy a grievance or to ensure that it ⚫ is not repeated.
The report further foresees that the chief sanction of the Commissioner would be publicity. His function would be to give a final and clearly independent judgement on complaints which the consultative council machinery had been unable to resolve satisfactorily.
He would thus reinforce public confidence in the system, help to bring about a greater degree of uniformity in the methods of dealing with grievances and provide it with a national focus.
Publication of our report closely followed the publication of a report on the same subject by the National Consumers' Council and both reports were debated at the N.C.C.'s Annual Conference. The JUSTICE report was warmly commended.
The detailed research was carried out by Dr. Philip Giddings, who also drafted the report, and Dr. Wyn Grant, assisted by the late David Peirson, a former Secretary of the U.K. Atomic Energy Authority. We are grateful to them for their invaluable services.
The members of the committee were: Professor J. F. Garner (Chairman), Albert Chapman, Dr. Philip Giddings, Dr. Wyn Grant, Victor Moore, Professor Frank Stacey, David Widdicombe Q.C. and Ronald Briggs (Secretary). David Peirson was a member of the committee until his death in March 1976.
Our Fettered Ombudsman
The interest and discussions stimulated by the joint conference of the French Section of the I.C.J. in July, 1975 on the institution of the
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