Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of (a) increasing the powers of the Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration and (b) merging the office of that Commissioner with the office of the Health Service Commission for England.

The Government is committed to the reform and modernisation of the public service ombudsman sector. In December 2015 we published our response to the consultation on the recommendations made by Robert Gordon’s report on this matter, and we intend to publish draft legislation to create a new Public Service Ombudsman, which will encompass the existing jurisdictions of the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman and the Local Government Ombudsman.