Ann Abraham
Encyclopedia
Ann Abraham is the current Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration and Health Service Commissioner for England (Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman). She was appointed in 2002.
Ann Abraham was born in 1952 and attended Kingsfield Grammar School
in Bristol
. She studied at Bedford College, graduating in German
and philosophy
in 1974.
She was a housing manager between 1979 and 1980, first for Tower Hamlets Council
and then for Islington Council
. She then joined the Housing Corporation
in 1981, serving until 1990 as a regional director and then operations director. She became the Chief Executive of the National Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux in 1991, serving until 1997, when she became the Legal Services Ombudsman
.
as Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman.
Ann Abraham's tenure as Ombudsman has seen a major effort to focus the efforts of Government departments on providing good administration, departing from the traditional focus on avoiding maladministration. She has also confronted the Government over several serious acts of maladministration, which led to an unprecedented tabling of reports under s10(3) Parliamentary Commissioner Act 1967
in which the Ombudsman reports that injustice caused by maladministration has not is not likely to be remedied. She also maximised her powers under s10(4) Parliamentary Commissioner Act 1967
to issue special reports in order highlights significant examples of maladministration by the Government.
She is due to finish her term as Ombudsman in December 2011, to be succeded by Dame Julie Mellor
.
concerned NHS funding for long-term care. Two reports had previously been issued on the subject by Sir William Reid
, Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman between 1990 and 1996. It was found by Reid that the National Health Service
had failed to make long-term care available to patients with mental and physical health needs. There were also failings in how health authorities had set the eligibility criteria for funding. The report published by Ann Abraham in February 2003 was strongly critical of the Department of Health. It was found that numerous health authorities were using criteria that was too restrictive in determining eligibility for funding for NHS care that was not in line with that laid down by the Department after the judgment in ex parte Coughlan. Ann Abraham found that the cost of caring for patients with very severe disabilities was left to relatives instead of the National Health Service. She recommended the Department take a strong lead in providing a very clear, well defined national framework for determining eligibility. This the Government undertook to do, as well as a retrospective review of cases that it had determined. The backlog of retrospective review cases grew to such an extent that Ann Abraham took the decision in June 2004 to accept cases directly without complainants having to exhaust the NHS complaints procedure. In a follow up report in December 2004, Ann Abraham criticised the shortcomings which she had discovered in the retrospective review process. Record keeping was often poor, decisions were sometimes taken without clinical advice and review processes were sometimes secretive. Once again, Ann Abraham insisted on a national framework for criteria and recommended the development of good practice guidance to support the criteria. Thereafter, the Office engaged deeply with the Department and the health authorities to ensure that cases were properly assessed according to criteria. The Department published its national framework for determining funding eligibility in June 2007 and the number of NHS continuing care cases being handled by the Office shrunk from 1,500 in November 2007 to just 100 in March 2008. Through its rigorous reporting and active engagement with the Department, the Office under Ann Abraham had helped bring about service improvement in the NHS and provide justice to those wrongly denied funding.
following referrals by more than 200 MPs. She found that official information provided by the Government was often inaccurate, incomplete and inconsistent; that the response to the actuarial recommendation was maladministration; and a decision to change the minimum funding requirement was done maladministratively. Complainants had sustained a sense of outrage, had lost opportunities to make informed choices or take remedial action and had suffered distress, anxiety and uncertainty. She made five recommendations, including that the Government consider arranging for the restoration of the pensions benefits. The Government rejected the report, insisting that the case for maladministration was not found out and that it was not in the public interest to compensate the pension schemes. In response, Ann Abraham expressed disappointment at the Government's attitude and commented that it raised doubts about the commitment of the Government to the Ombudsman scheme. To the Select Committee, she noted that she sought to constructively engage with the Government: it is maladministration, get over it and let us get on to engagement with the real issues here The Select Committee supported Ann Abraham, issuing a report which found that the Government bore some responsibility for compensating those affected. The Government reiterated its position and legal action by complainants followed. In the Court of Appeal
it was held in February 2008 that the Government could not reject the findings of the Ombudsman without reason. The Government was compelled to reconsider Ann Abraham's recommendation that arrangements be made to restore pension benefits. It made parallel moves to improve the Financial Assistance Scheme which provided assistance to those whose pension schemes had begun to wind up. After pressure from the Select Committee, it was ultimately decided by the Government in December 2007 to guarantee the Financial Assistance Scheme to 90%. Ann Abraham welcomed this move as compliance with her key recommendations, although the Government did not acknowledge acceptance of her findings.
, the Financial Services Authority
, the Government Actuary's Department
and the Department of Trade and Industry. She recommended that a compensation scheme be established to put people in the position they would have been in but for the maladministration. The Select Committe reinforced Ann Abraham's position in December 2008, calling on the Government to comply with the report's recommendations. When the Government announced in January 2009 that it would assist those 'hardest hit' by the collapse, Ann Abraham declared its attitude to be astonishing. The Government was strong on assertion... short on facts and was re-arranging the evidence, re-doing the analysis and acting as judge on its own behalf. Once again, the Select Committee supported the Ombudsman, expressing disappointment at the Government's scheme of remedy. It labelled the Government shabby, constitutionally dubious and procedurally improper in its rejection of the recommendations. Ann Abraham published a follow-up report in May 2009, Injustice Unremedied, under s10(3) Parliamentary Commissioner Act 1967
criticising the Government for rejecting her findings. She commented that the Government attitude begged a rather larger question as to what the purpose of regulation was supposed to be. In May 2010, the Government announced that it would propose a Bill to implement her recommendations. However, in July 2010 it announced that an independent commission would advise how compensation would be paid and that it could include recommendations by the retired judge Sir John Chadwick, whose methodology was rejected by Ann Abraham. His proposals, she said, would not in any sense enable fair and transparent compensation to be delivered. In October 2010, the Chancellor of the Exchequer
George Osborne
announced that compensation of £1.5 billion would be paid, a settlement called woefully inadequate by campaigners.
Sir Gus O'Donnell
. The Cabinet Office
had already stated that the Principles represent common sense and good practice and that they are written in a way which staff will find relevant and helpful to their work. Ann Abraham declared in June 2008 that the Principles were consistent with the original intention of the establishment of the Office - to humanise the bureaucracy of the state. Ann Abraham followed up the publication of the Principles of Good Administration with the Principles for Remedy in October 2007, announcing that they would help public bodies to have to hand the tools to put things right themselves. The Principles of Good Complaint Handling were published in November 2008 as guidance to help public authorities resolve complaints before they reached the Office. All three sets of Princples were published as a trilogy in February 2009 as the Ombudsman's Principles, encapsulating the case experience of the Office since its establishment in 1967.
by the Japanese during the Second World War. They complained about a compensation scheme established by the Government in 2000 in which £10,000 would be offered to surviving members of groups who had been held prisoner. The Defence Minister, Dr Lewis Moonie
, announced that 'British groups', 'British citizens' and 'UK citizens' would be eligible for compensation. The clarification of this requirement was that a claimant had to have been born in the United Kingdom or had a parent or grandparent born in the United Kingdom - the 'bloodlink'. Complaints were made by many who considered themselves British
who could not meet the criteria, including the political scientist Professor Jack Hayward, born in Shanghai
to a father born in India and a mother born in Iraq
. Ann Abraham published her report - A Debt of Honour (after a phrase used by Dr Moonie) - in July 2005. She found four instances of maladministration: the scheme was devised hurriedly and with a lack of clarity about eligiblity; that the announcement of the scheme was so imprecise as to give rise to confusion; that there was a failure to ensure that the 'bloodlink' requirement would not lead to unequal treatment; and that there was a failure to inform applicants about the 'bloodlink' clarification when they were sent an eligbility questionnaire. The report recommended that the scheme be reviewed so that it would not operate in a way that would unequally treat Hayward and others in a similar situation. The report was published under s10(3) as the Government only partially accepted the recommendations but refused to accept that there had been inequality of treatment or to review the scheme. The Select Committee published its own report on the matter, endorsing the recommendations of Ann Abraham, in January 2006. In March 2006 the Ministry of Defence
announced that it had made changes to the eligibility criteria, abandoning the 'bloodlink' requirement and paving the way for Hayward and others to become eligible for compensation.
A postscipt to the affair was provided by the 'injury to feelings' scheme announced by the Government in June 2007 in which claimants could apply for compensation for the discrimination they had suffered under the original scheme as a result of the 'bloodlink' criterion. £4,000 was offered to anyone who applied for the scheme and was rejected on the 'bloodlink' grounds. Complaints were received by the Office that the Ministry of Defence had rejected claims under this scheme as well. In one instance, an anonymous claimant who had been born in British Malaya
and interned in Singapore
was told that a previous apology and payment had been given to them in error. Ann Abraham issued a report in September 2011, Defending the Indefensible, which condemned the actions of the Ministry of Defence as extraordinarily insensitive, disgraceful and unfair and unforgivable. She added that it was the worst example I have seen in nearly nine years... of a government department getting things wrong and then repeatedly failing to put things right or learn from its mistakes. The Government admitted the failings of the Ministry of Defence and paid additional compensation to those who had suffered distress. In conclusion, the Minister for Veterans, Andrew Robathan
, stated that I hope an injustice has now been fairly rectified.
, concluding a lengthy saga between the complainants, Mr and Mrs Balchin, Norfolk County Council and the Department of Transport
concerning blight caused by a proposed bypass. After four reports and three judicial review cases, the matter was settled with the Council and the Department paying the complainants £200,000.
She also reported twice on the system of tax credits operated by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC). In June 2005, she issued Tax credits: Putting things right, in which continuing problems with how the system was operated. It was observed that the system appears unable to provide an immediate, responsive and appropriate service, particularly when things go wrong. A number of recommendations were made, but in October 2007, she reported on the subject again. In Tax credits: Getting it wrong, she observed that despite improvements by HMRC in its administration of tax credits, big improvements were still necessary. Complaints continued to be made about the design of the system, the failures in complaint handling and the unfair or unreasonable recovery of overpayments. Ann Abraham observed the effects of this maladministration: in such instances, the impact on those concerned, typically those on the very lowest incomes who are the most vulnerable in society, is huge and highly distressing.
In February 2011, a report was published into NHS care for the elderly. In Care and compassion? she highlighted how ten elderly patients suffered pain, indignity and distress while being cared for by the NHS. There were failures in pain control, discharge arrangements, communication with patients and their relatives and ensuring adequate nutrition. Ann Abraham commented that the harrowing accounts should cause every member of NHS staff who reads this report to pause and ask themselves if any of their patients could suffer in the same way. She warned that 'the NHS must close the gap between the promise of care and compassion outlined in its Constitution and the injustice that many older people experience.
and football, being a supporter of Arsenal FC.
Ann Abraham was born in 1952 and attended Kingsfield Grammar School
Kingsfield School
King's Oak Academy, formerly known as Kingsfield School and Kingswood Grammar School, is a Mathematics and Computing College located in Kingswood, Bristol, England.-Admissions:...
in Bristol
Bristol
Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...
. She studied at Bedford College, graduating in German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
and philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
in 1974.
She was a housing manager between 1979 and 1980, first for Tower Hamlets Council
London Borough of Tower Hamlets
The London Borough of Tower Hamlets is a London borough to the east of the City of London and north of the River Thames. It is in the eastern part of London and covers much of the traditional East End. It also includes much of the redeveloped Docklands region of London, including West India Docks...
and then for Islington Council
London Borough of Islington
The London Borough of Islington is a London borough in Inner London. It was formed in 1965 by merging the former metropolitan boroughs of Islington and Finsbury. The borough contains two Westminster parliamentary constituencies, Islington North and Islington South & Finsbury...
. She then joined the Housing Corporation
Housing Corporation
The Housing Corporation was the non-departmental public body that funded new affordable housing and regulated housing associations in England. It was established by the Housing Act 1964...
in 1981, serving until 1990 as a regional director and then operations director. She became the Chief Executive of the National Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux in 1991, serving until 1997, when she became the Legal Services Ombudsman
Legal Services Ombudsman
In England and Wales, the Legal Services Ombudsman was a statutory officer that investigated allegations about the improper, ineffective or inefficient way that complaints about lawyers are handled by their respective self-regulating professional bodies. The Ombudsman is appointed by, and is...
.
Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman
In 2002, Ann Abraham succeeded Sir Michael BuckleyMichael Buckley (civil servant)
Sir Michael Sydney Buckley KBE is a retired civil servant who was Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration and Health Service Commissioner for England, Scotland and Wales between 1997 and 2002....
as Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman.
Ann Abraham's tenure as Ombudsman has seen a major effort to focus the efforts of Government departments on providing good administration, departing from the traditional focus on avoiding maladministration. She has also confronted the Government over several serious acts of maladministration, which led to an unprecedented tabling of reports under s10(3) Parliamentary Commissioner Act 1967
Parliamentary Commissioner Act 1967
The Parliamentary Commissioner Act 1967 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.It established the office of the Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration . The Ombudsman is responsible for investigating the administrative actions of central government departments and public...
in which the Ombudsman reports that injustice caused by maladministration has not is not likely to be remedied. She also maximised her powers under s10(4) Parliamentary Commissioner Act 1967
Parliamentary Commissioner Act 1967
The Parliamentary Commissioner Act 1967 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.It established the office of the Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration . The Ombudsman is responsible for investigating the administrative actions of central government departments and public...
to issue special reports in order highlights significant examples of maladministration by the Government.
She is due to finish her term as Ombudsman in December 2011, to be succeded by Dame Julie Mellor
Julie Mellor
Dame Julie Thérèse Mellor, DBE was the former chair of the Equal Opportunities Commission between 1999 and 2005.Mellor is now a partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers. She is a non executive board member of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and of the Green Alliance...
.
NHS continuing care
The first special report published by Ann Abraham under s10(4) Parliamentary Commissioner Act 1967Parliamentary Commissioner Act 1967
The Parliamentary Commissioner Act 1967 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.It established the office of the Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration . The Ombudsman is responsible for investigating the administrative actions of central government departments and public...
concerned NHS funding for long-term care. Two reports had previously been issued on the subject by Sir William Reid
William Reid (civil servant)
Sir William Kennedy Reid KCB is a retired civil servant who was Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration and Health Service Commissioner for England, Scotland and Wales between 1990 and 1996....
, Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman between 1990 and 1996. It was found by Reid that the National Health Service
National Health Service
The National Health Service is the shared name of three of the four publicly funded healthcare systems in the United Kingdom. They provide a comprehensive range of health services, the vast majority of which are free at the point of use to residents of the United Kingdom...
had failed to make long-term care available to patients with mental and physical health needs. There were also failings in how health authorities had set the eligibility criteria for funding. The report published by Ann Abraham in February 2003 was strongly critical of the Department of Health. It was found that numerous health authorities were using criteria that was too restrictive in determining eligibility for funding for NHS care that was not in line with that laid down by the Department after the judgment in ex parte Coughlan. Ann Abraham found that the cost of caring for patients with very severe disabilities was left to relatives instead of the National Health Service. She recommended the Department take a strong lead in providing a very clear, well defined national framework for determining eligibility. This the Government undertook to do, as well as a retrospective review of cases that it had determined. The backlog of retrospective review cases grew to such an extent that Ann Abraham took the decision in June 2004 to accept cases directly without complainants having to exhaust the NHS complaints procedure. In a follow up report in December 2004, Ann Abraham criticised the shortcomings which she had discovered in the retrospective review process. Record keeping was often poor, decisions were sometimes taken without clinical advice and review processes were sometimes secretive. Once again, Ann Abraham insisted on a national framework for criteria and recommended the development of good practice guidance to support the criteria. Thereafter, the Office engaged deeply with the Department and the health authorities to ensure that cases were properly assessed according to criteria. The Department published its national framework for determining funding eligibility in June 2007 and the number of NHS continuing care cases being handled by the Office shrunk from 1,500 in November 2007 to just 100 in March 2008. Through its rigorous reporting and active engagement with the Department, the Office under Ann Abraham had helped bring about service improvement in the NHS and provide justice to those wrongly denied funding.
Trusting in the pensions promise
A significant number of complaints were received by members of wound-up final salary occupational pension schemes who learned that the funds of which they had been members were insufficiently funded. They complained that official information provided by the Government about the security of the pension schemes was misleading and that warnings were not provided about the risks to the schemes in response to an actuarial recommendation in 2000 that such a warning be given. In March 2006, Ann Abraham published a report into the matter - titled Trusting in the pensions promise - under s10(3) Parliamentary Commissioner Act 1967Parliamentary Commissioner Act 1967
The Parliamentary Commissioner Act 1967 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.It established the office of the Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration . The Ombudsman is responsible for investigating the administrative actions of central government departments and public...
following referrals by more than 200 MPs. She found that official information provided by the Government was often inaccurate, incomplete and inconsistent; that the response to the actuarial recommendation was maladministration; and a decision to change the minimum funding requirement was done maladministratively. Complainants had sustained a sense of outrage, had lost opportunities to make informed choices or take remedial action and had suffered distress, anxiety and uncertainty. She made five recommendations, including that the Government consider arranging for the restoration of the pensions benefits. The Government rejected the report, insisting that the case for maladministration was not found out and that it was not in the public interest to compensate the pension schemes. In response, Ann Abraham expressed disappointment at the Government's attitude and commented that it raised doubts about the commitment of the Government to the Ombudsman scheme. To the Select Committee, she noted that she sought to constructively engage with the Government: it is maladministration, get over it and let us get on to engagement with the real issues here The Select Committee supported Ann Abraham, issuing a report which found that the Government bore some responsibility for compensating those affected. The Government reiterated its position and legal action by complainants followed. In the Court of Appeal
Court of Appeal of England and Wales
The Court of Appeal of England and Wales is the second most senior court in the English legal system, with only the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom above it...
it was held in February 2008 that the Government could not reject the findings of the Ombudsman without reason. The Government was compelled to reconsider Ann Abraham's recommendation that arrangements be made to restore pension benefits. It made parallel moves to improve the Financial Assistance Scheme which provided assistance to those whose pension schemes had begun to wind up. After pressure from the Select Committee, it was ultimately decided by the Government in December 2007 to guarantee the Financial Assistance Scheme to 90%. Ann Abraham welcomed this move as compliance with her key recommendations, although the Government did not acknowledge acceptance of her findings.
Equitable Life
In July 2008, Ann Abraham published a report into the regulatory failure of the Government in its oversight of Equitable Life, which verged on collapse in 2000 and left more than a million policyholders with significantly reduced retirement savings. Equitable Life had admitted that its customers' investments were worth £3 billion more than the company's total assets, leading to insurers slashing the policies. Ann Abraham found ten instances of maladministration and held that the Government had failed to use the powers available to it to protect the policyholders. She criticised the Government for failing to verify the solvency of Equitable Life and failing to make sure that the information available to the public was reliable. The title of the report - A decade of regulatory failure - served to emphasise the seriousness of the maladministration. Among the departments rebuked by her report was the TreasuryHM Treasury
HM Treasury, in full Her Majesty's Treasury, informally The Treasury, is the United Kingdom government department responsible for developing and executing the British government's public finance policy and economic policy...
, the Financial Services Authority
Financial Services Authority
The Financial Services Authority is a quasi-judicial body responsible for the regulation of the financial services industry in the United Kingdom. Its board is appointed by the Treasury and the organisation is structured as a company limited by guarantee and owned by the UK government. Its main...
, the Government Actuary's Department
Government Actuary's Department
The Government Actuary’s Department is a department of the Government of the United Kingdom responsible for providing actuarial advice to public sector clients....
and the Department of Trade and Industry. She recommended that a compensation scheme be established to put people in the position they would have been in but for the maladministration. The Select Committe reinforced Ann Abraham's position in December 2008, calling on the Government to comply with the report's recommendations. When the Government announced in January 2009 that it would assist those 'hardest hit' by the collapse, Ann Abraham declared its attitude to be astonishing. The Government was strong on assertion... short on facts and was re-arranging the evidence, re-doing the analysis and acting as judge on its own behalf. Once again, the Select Committee supported the Ombudsman, expressing disappointment at the Government's scheme of remedy. It labelled the Government shabby, constitutionally dubious and procedurally improper in its rejection of the recommendations. Ann Abraham published a follow-up report in May 2009, Injustice Unremedied, under s10(3) Parliamentary Commissioner Act 1967
Parliamentary Commissioner Act 1967
The Parliamentary Commissioner Act 1967 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.It established the office of the Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration . The Ombudsman is responsible for investigating the administrative actions of central government departments and public...
criticising the Government for rejecting her findings. She commented that the Government attitude begged a rather larger question as to what the purpose of regulation was supposed to be. In May 2010, the Government announced that it would propose a Bill to implement her recommendations. However, in July 2010 it announced that an independent commission would advise how compensation would be paid and that it could include recommendations by the retired judge Sir John Chadwick, whose methodology was rejected by Ann Abraham. His proposals, she said, would not in any sense enable fair and transparent compensation to be delivered. In October 2010, the Chancellor of the Exchequer
Chancellor of the Exchequer
The Chancellor of the Exchequer is the title held by the British Cabinet minister who is responsible for all economic and financial matters. Often simply called the Chancellor, the office-holder controls HM Treasury and plays a role akin to the posts of Minister of Finance or Secretary of the...
George Osborne
George Osborne
George Gideon Oliver Osborne, MP is a British Conservative politician. He is the Chancellor of the Exchequer of the United Kingdom, a role to which he was appointed in May 2010, and has been the Member of Parliament for Tatton since 2001.Osborne is part of the old Anglo-Irish aristocracy, known in...
announced that compensation of £1.5 billion would be paid, a settlement called woefully inadequate by campaigners.
Ombudsman's Principles
A major initiative of Ann Abraham was that of the Ombudsman's Principles, an attempt to prevent instances of maladministration by promoting good administration. The work on developing the Principles of Good Administration began in 2005, with the Principles being progressively reduced in number and clarified for ease of understanding. By 2006, the Principles which Ann Abraham sought to promote in Government departments were agreed upon as 'Getting it right', 'Being customer focused', 'Being open and accountable', 'Acting fairly and proportionately', 'Putting things right' and 'Seeking continuous improvement'. In March 2007, the Principles of Good Administration were published, being welcomed by the Cabinet SecretaryCabinet Secretary
A Cabinet Secretary is almost always a senior official who provides services and advice to a Cabinet of Ministers. In many countries, the position can have considerably wider functions and powers, including general responsibility for the entire civil service...
Sir Gus O'Donnell
Gus O'Donnell
Sir Augustine Thomas "Gus" O'Donnell GCB is a British civil servant, who is the current Cabinet Secretary, the highest rank in the British Civil Service. He is consequently, under current practice, Head of the Civil Service, which means he has authority over all civil servants except those who are...
. The Cabinet Office
Cabinet Office
The Cabinet Office is a department of the Government of the United Kingdom responsible for supporting the Prime Minister and Cabinet of the United Kingdom....
had already stated that the Principles represent common sense and good practice and that they are written in a way which staff will find relevant and helpful to their work. Ann Abraham declared in June 2008 that the Principles were consistent with the original intention of the establishment of the Office - to humanise the bureaucracy of the state. Ann Abraham followed up the publication of the Principles of Good Administration with the Principles for Remedy in October 2007, announcing that they would help public bodies to have to hand the tools to put things right themselves. The Principles of Good Complaint Handling were published in November 2008 as guidance to help public authorities resolve complaints before they reached the Office. All three sets of Princples were published as a trilogy in February 2009 as the Ombudsman's Principles, encapsulating the case experience of the Office since its establishment in 1967.
A Debt of Honour and Defending the Indefensible
Ann Abraham investigated complaints made by British groups who had been internedInternment
Internment is the imprisonment or confinement of people, commonly in large groups, without trial. The Oxford English Dictionary gives the meaning as: "The action of 'interning'; confinement within the limits of a country or place." Most modern usage is about individuals, and there is a distinction...
by the Japanese during the Second World War. They complained about a compensation scheme established by the Government in 2000 in which £10,000 would be offered to surviving members of groups who had been held prisoner. The Defence Minister, Dr Lewis Moonie
Lewis Moonie, Baron Moonie
Lewis George Moonie, Baron Moonie is a Labour Co-operative politician in the United Kingdom. He was the Member of Parliament for Kirkcaldy from 1987 to 2005.-Early life:...
, announced that 'British groups', 'British citizens' and 'UK citizens' would be eligible for compensation. The clarification of this requirement was that a claimant had to have been born in the United Kingdom or had a parent or grandparent born in the United Kingdom - the 'bloodlink'. Complaints were made by many who considered themselves British
British people
The British are citizens of the United Kingdom, of the Isle of Man, any of the Channel Islands, or of any of the British overseas territories, and their descendants...
who could not meet the criteria, including the political scientist Professor Jack Hayward, born in Shanghai
Shanghai
Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...
to a father born in India and a mother born in Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
. Ann Abraham published her report - A Debt of Honour (after a phrase used by Dr Moonie) - in July 2005. She found four instances of maladministration: the scheme was devised hurriedly and with a lack of clarity about eligiblity; that the announcement of the scheme was so imprecise as to give rise to confusion; that there was a failure to ensure that the 'bloodlink' requirement would not lead to unequal treatment; and that there was a failure to inform applicants about the 'bloodlink' clarification when they were sent an eligbility questionnaire. The report recommended that the scheme be reviewed so that it would not operate in a way that would unequally treat Hayward and others in a similar situation. The report was published under s10(3) as the Government only partially accepted the recommendations but refused to accept that there had been inequality of treatment or to review the scheme. The Select Committee published its own report on the matter, endorsing the recommendations of Ann Abraham, in January 2006. In March 2006 the Ministry of Defence
Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom)
The Ministry of Defence is the United Kingdom government department responsible for implementation of government defence policy and is the headquarters of the British Armed Forces....
announced that it had made changes to the eligibility criteria, abandoning the 'bloodlink' requirement and paving the way for Hayward and others to become eligible for compensation.
A postscipt to the affair was provided by the 'injury to feelings' scheme announced by the Government in June 2007 in which claimants could apply for compensation for the discrimination they had suffered under the original scheme as a result of the 'bloodlink' criterion. £4,000 was offered to anyone who applied for the scheme and was rejected on the 'bloodlink' grounds. Complaints were received by the Office that the Ministry of Defence had rejected claims under this scheme as well. In one instance, an anonymous claimant who had been born in British Malaya
British Malaya
British Malaya loosely described a set of states on the Malay Peninsula and the Island of Singapore that were brought under British control between the 18th and the 20th centuries...
and interned in Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
was told that a previous apology and payment had been given to them in error. Ann Abraham issued a report in September 2011, Defending the Indefensible, which condemned the actions of the Ministry of Defence as extraordinarily insensitive, disgraceful and unfair and unforgivable. She added that it was the worst example I have seen in nearly nine years... of a government department getting things wrong and then repeatedly failing to put things right or learn from its mistakes. The Government admitted the failings of the Ministry of Defence and paid additional compensation to those who had suffered distress. In conclusion, the Minister for Veterans, Andrew Robathan
Andrew Robathan
Andrew Robert George Robathan is a British Conservative politician, and Member of Parliament for South Leicestershire in Leicestershire...
, stated that I hope an injustice has now been fairly rectified.
Other reports
Ann Abraham published other notable reports while serving as Ombudsman. In October 2005, she issued Redress in the Round alongside the Local Government OmbudsmanLocal Government Ombudsman
A Local Government Ombudsman is an official employed by the Commission for Local Administration in England , a body of commissioners established under the Local Government Act 1974 to investigate complaints about councils and certain other bodies in England. Each of three Local Government Ombudsmen...
, concluding a lengthy saga between the complainants, Mr and Mrs Balchin, Norfolk County Council and the Department of Transport
Department for Transport
In the United Kingdom, the Department for Transport is the government department responsible for the English transport network and a limited number of transport matters in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland which are not devolved...
concerning blight caused by a proposed bypass. After four reports and three judicial review cases, the matter was settled with the Council and the Department paying the complainants £200,000.
She also reported twice on the system of tax credits operated by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC). In June 2005, she issued Tax credits: Putting things right, in which continuing problems with how the system was operated. It was observed that the system appears unable to provide an immediate, responsive and appropriate service, particularly when things go wrong. A number of recommendations were made, but in October 2007, she reported on the subject again. In Tax credits: Getting it wrong, she observed that despite improvements by HMRC in its administration of tax credits, big improvements were still necessary. Complaints continued to be made about the design of the system, the failures in complaint handling and the unfair or unreasonable recovery of overpayments. Ann Abraham observed the effects of this maladministration: in such instances, the impact on those concerned, typically those on the very lowest incomes who are the most vulnerable in society, is huge and highly distressing.
In February 2011, a report was published into NHS care for the elderly. In Care and compassion? she highlighted how ten elderly patients suffered pain, indignity and distress while being cared for by the NHS. There were failures in pain control, discharge arrangements, communication with patients and their relatives and ensuring adequate nutrition. Ann Abraham commented that the harrowing accounts should cause every member of NHS staff who reads this report to pause and ask themselves if any of their patients could suffer in the same way. She warned that 'the NHS must close the gap between the promise of care and compassion outlined in its Constitution and the injustice that many older people experience.
Recreation
Ann Abraham enjoys walking, gardeningGardening
Gardening is the practice of growing and cultivating plants. Ornamental plants are normally grown for their flowers, foliage, or overall appearance; useful plants are grown for consumption , for their dyes, or for medicinal or cosmetic use...
and football, being a supporter of Arsenal FC.