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Scottish Public Services Ombudsman Investigations (Transparency) (PE1538)
Agenda item 3 is consideration of petition PE1538 by Dr Richard Burton on behalf of Accountability Scotland. The petition asks us
“to urge the Scottish Government to amend the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman Act 2002 to ensure that complainants are shown all correspondence between SPSO and the bodies complained about before the investigation is concluded (including emails) and that they are also made aware of the content of any verbal communications.”
We discussed the issue during last week’s evidence taking from the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman, and we have had the benefit of a written response from the SPSO and the petitioner’s comments thereon. We have also received the internal guidance on information sharing that is used by SPSO staff. Do members have any views on the petition?
As members have none, I suggest that we close the petition. Is that agreed?
Members indicated agreement.
Although the matter is not covered by the petition, I am aware that the Public Petitions Committee has discussed a review of the operation of the SPSO. It is my opinion that such a review would be premature, given that the parent act—the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman Act 2002—was reviewed by a committee of this Parliament in 2009. That review led to a number of changes being made to the 2002 act, including to section 19, which is the subject of the petition.
The 2009 review, which looked at all the bodies that were supported by the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body, included consideration of their operation and whether they were needed or could be amalgamated. Given the outcome of that review, consideration of a further review at this point would be premature. Do members have any views on that position?
As members do not, we will move on to the next item.