Ombudsman led the Executive Committee to ask the Administrative Law Committee to undertake an up-to-date study of the role of the Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration. JUSTICE played a significant part in the campaign that led to the institution of a Parliamentary Commissioner, and thus has a continuing interest in his work.
Our Fettered Ombudsman, the title of the Administrative Law Committee's report recently published, expresses our essential criticism of the British version. The report concludes that within its restricted framework the institution of a Parliamentary Commissioner for Adminis- tration has worked well, and has become a permanent part of the constitution. There are, however, many deficiencies and limitations, and the report makes numerous suggestions for improvement. Among the principal of these are:
(1) The Parliamentary Commissioner should be more independent of the Executive. He should not always be a former civil servant, and his staff should not be composed solely of civil servants. Treasury control of the numbers of his staff and expenses should be replaced by House of Commons control, and when he needs legal advice it should be that of his own legal advisers rather than of the Treasury Solicitor.
(2) Complaints should be made to the Commissioner either through an M.P. or directly by members of the public, and detained persons should be allowed to send letters uncensored to their M.Ps. or to the Commissioner.
(3) The term "maladministration" should be abandoned in favour of "unreasonable, unjust or oppressive action" to describe what the Parliamentary Commissioner is to look for.
(4) The Commissioner should be empowered to undertake investi- gation of his own initiative and to suggest changes in legislation, including statutory instruments, and in departmental practices.
(5) There should be more publicity for the Commissioner's work. He should supply full details of all his results reports unless asked not to by the referring Member of Parliament or the complainant. Quarterly and annual reports should be more readable and infor- mative, and he should make more use of press conferences, and of radio and television interviews.
(6) His jurisdiction should be extended to include, among other matters, commercial transactions of government departments or authorities which are otherwise under his jurisdiction and to personnel matters relating to service under the Crown.
We should like to thank Butterworths for their assistance in the publication of this report. Copies may be obtained only from JUSTICE, price £1.50 (members £1.00), postage 10p.
Administrative Division of the High Court
With a view to focusing influential opinion on the issues involved in the establishment of an Administrative Division of the High Court, the Committee invited the Hon. Mr. Justice White of the New Zealand
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