Ombudsmen at the Crossroads

Nick O’Brien is Honorary Research Fellow at Liverpool University, UK. He was Legal Director of the Disability Rights Commission between 2000 and 2007, and Specialist Adviser to the House of Commons Public Administration Select Committee inquiry on the UK Parliamentary Ombudsman 2013-14. Mary Seneviratne is Emeritus Professor of Law, Nottingham Trent University, UK. She was formerly a Member of the Administrative Justice and Tribunals Council, and Adviser to the Scottish Parliament Justice Committee. She is author of The Legal Profession: Regulation and the Consumer (1999), and Ombudsmen: Public Services and Administrative Justice (2002).

• Introduction: ‘Dispute Resolution’ and ‘Democratic Accountability’.- Chapter 1. Professional Context and Regulatory Background: ‘Fat Cats’ and Frustrated ‘Consumers’.- Chapter 2. The LSO, Market Forces and the Challenge to Professional Self-regulation in the 1980s.- Chapter 3. The LSO in Practice 1991-1997: Democratic Accountability and the ‘Creaking System’.- Chapter 4. The LSO in Practice 1998-2002: Consumer Dispute Resolution and ‘The Regulatory Maze’.- Chapter 5. The LSO in Practice 2003-2010: ‘Putting Consumers First’.- Chapter 6. Conclusion: The Ombuds as ‘Third Way’.