Scottish Public Services Ombudsman
The next item of business is consideration of motion S3M-3766, in the name of David McLetchie, on behalf of the selection panel, announcing the appointment of the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman.
The motion that I will move invites members to nominate Mr Jim Martin to Her Majesty the Queen for appointment as the new Scottish Public Services Ombudsman, and I will do so with pleasure, on behalf of the selection panel, which the Presiding Officer chaired. The other MSP members of the panel were Duncan McNeil, the convener of the Parliament's Local Government and Communities Committee, Alison McInnes, Dr Ian McKee, Mary Mulligan, Sandra White and me.
Although the Parliament is not subject to the "Code of Practice for Ministerial Appointments to Public Bodies in Scotland", we follow those guidelines to ensure that best practice is observed and that the process is fair. On behalf of the selection panel, I thank Louise Rose, the independent assessor who oversaw the selection process and who has provided the Parliament with a validation certificate confirming that the process complied with good practice and that the nomination of the ombudsman was made on merit after a fair, open and transparent process.
Our nominee, Jim Martin, was the unanimous choice of the panel from a strong field of candidates. We received 23 applications for the post and shortlisted six candidates for interview.
Members will be aware that the Parliament has established the Review of SPCB Supported Bodies Committee to consider the future structural landscape of the bodies that are supported by the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. One of those bodies is the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman. In light of that on-going review, the corporate body has determined that the initial period of appointment will be for two years, with the possibility of reappointment for one further year.
The nominee, Jim Martin, is currently the police complaints commissioner for Scotland. He is also the Scottish non-executive chair of Logica and a member of the Scottish Further and Higher Education Funding Council. On appointment as ombudsman, he will resign from those positions. He has held posts as diverse as corporate services director of Scottish Amicable—from 1995 to 1999—and general secretary of the Educational Institute of Scotland, in which capacity he served from 1987 until 1995. His non-executive experience includes being vice-chair of the BBC's Broadcasting Council for Scotland and a member of the court of the University of Stirling, the board of Forth Valley Enterprise and the world executive board of the non-governmental organisation Education International. Therefore, he brings to the post a range of skills and experience derived from the variety of private, public and third sector companies, bodies and organisations for which he has worked.
The appointment is important because the ombudsman not only provides an independent, impartial and free complaints service to the people of Scotland but lets us as a Parliament know how well or otherwise our public services are performing and how they can be improved. The SPSO investigates complaints about local councils, the national health service, housing associations, the Scottish Government, universities and colleges. Last year, the ombudsman's office dealt with more than 2,000 complaints and a similar number of inquiries. In 2007-08, the office's annual budget amounted to some £3.16 million, more than 70 per cent of which was spent on remuneration for the team of 47 full-time equivalent members of staff whom the ombudsman leads.
I believe that Jim Martin will prove to be an effective ombudsman who will bring to the post the requisite experience and understanding, coupled with a commitment to public service and a dynamic approach to achieving the highest possible standards of service.
In closing, I record the Parliament's thanks to Professor Alice Brown, who was appointed our first Scottish Public Services Ombudsman back in 2002, for all her work in establishing that important new office. We thank her for the valuable contribution that she has made to the administrative justice system in Scotland. We wish her well in her future undertakings.
Looking to the future of the SPSO, I have much pleasure in moving the motion.
I move,
That the Parliament nominates Jim Martin to Her Majesty The Queen for appointment as the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman.
In my previous work as a general practitioner, I acted as an occasional so-called expert adviser to the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman on medical cases, so I have first-hand experience of the care and diligence that the organisation exercises in going about its duties. Therefore, I join David McLetchie in thanking the out-going ombudsman, Professor Alice Brown, for her work. Her decisions have not always been uncontroversial—how could they be?—but she has laboured under difficult circumstances. We wish her well for the future.
I welcome the nomination of Mr Jim Martin for appointment to the post. We were fortunate enough to have an extremely talented group of applicants, but Mr Martin was indeed the unanimous choice of the interview panel. I will not rehearse the details that David McLetchie gave, but they represent awesome experience of many organisations and fields of activity. I am convinced that he will be a huge asset to public life in Scotland and that he will carry out the duties of his important post with care, competence and diligence.
I have great pleasure in joining David McLetchie in nominating Mr Jim Martin for the post.
I am delighted to contribute to the debate. When the office of the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman was established in 2002, there were great expectations for it. It is unfortunate that there are times when individual citizens do not receive from public bodies the service that they are entitled to expect. Having a one-stop shop to which they could take their complaints was designed to be of benefit to such people, and that has proved to be the case.
The only problem that I see with the role is that people sometimes misunderstand it. As I said to Alice Brown when she attended a recent meeting of the Local Government and Communities Committee, despite her best efforts, some people still think that the SPSO can rule on policy rather than administration. That is clearly not the case. The new SPSO will need to make progress on that, and on the sharing of best practice.
Before I come to the new appointment, let me join other members in thanking Alice Brown for the role that she has played. She has taken the office of the SPSO to another level and has built public confidence in it.
As David McLetchie said, we had a particularly good range of candidates to interview, who would have brought a range of talents and skills to the role. We thank them all for applying. However, Jim Martin was the unanimous choice of the interviewing panel—that is no mean feat, when one considers who the members of the panel were. To all those MSPs who have had involvement with teachers, the EIS or the Scottish Trades Union Congress, Jim Martin needs no introduction—I do not have time, anyway. I assure members that, in Jim Martin, we are appointing an ombudsman who will defend the rights of the individual and in whom all of us can have confidence. I am happy to support his nomination.
I, too, am delighted to support David McLetchie's motion on the nomination of Jim Martin as the new Scottish Public Services Ombudsman. As David McLetchie and Mary Mulligan have said, he was the panel's unanimous choice.
Jim Martin brings to the role an impressive depth of experience and skills from the private, public and third sectors. He impressed us all with his independence of thought and his demonstrable impartiality. I believe that he will carry out the role of SPSO with vigour and will be a strong and impartial advocate for high standards in public service.
I conclude by thanking Professor Alice Brown for the contribution that she made as the first SPSO.