“A woman who received almost £100,000 too much from a pension company will keep the money, an ombudsman has decided.”
Daily Telegraph, 14th May 2013
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
“Newspaper owners have backed down on demands to have a veto over the board members of any new press regulator.”
BBC News, 10th May 2013
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
“Advertising regulators have been accused of failing to protect children from aggressive online marketing by food companies using internet games and advertising. The Children’s Food Campaign has called on ministers to introduce statutory regulation to close loopholes allowing ads that are banned from children’s television to be shown on manufacturers’ own child-friendly websites.”
The Guardian, 29th April 2013
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
“A watchdog is to investigate whether the firing of a Taser by a police officer
at a man doused in flammable liquid caused fatal burns.”
The Independent, 27th April 2013
Source: www.independent.co.uk
“Dame Julie Thérèse Mellor, DBE was appointed as Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration and the Health Service Commissioner for England (Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman) in January 2012.
The Ombudsman is mandated to consider complaints that public bodies have not acted fairly. As a watchdog body independent of government and accountable to Parliament, its constitutional role is delicate and complex. Dame Julie will discuss that role, and how best the Ombdusman can maximize its independence and impact as a check on executive power.”
UCL Constitution Unit, 23rd April 2013
Source: www.ucl.ac.uk/constitution-unit
“Tenants are to be given the right to challenge rogue letting agents for the first time after the government agreed at the 11th hour to a legislative amendment requiring all agents to sign up to a mandatory redress scheme.”
The Guardian, 16th April 2013
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
“Just 30 out of 227,000 people have failed the City regulator’s ‘fit and proper’ test to take on some of the most risky jobs in British banks since the onset of the financial crisis.”
The Guardian, 12th April 2013
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
“Convicted criminals could be barred from claiming legal aid to fund complaints about the prison system regarding matters such as categorisation, moves, correspondence and visits.”
The Guardian, 4th April 2013
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
“Victims of crime are being put under extreme duress, leading to injustices, due to a lack of awareness of the Victims’ Code by those working in the justice system, a watchdog has warned.”
BBC News, 29th March 2013
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
“Michael Gove’s flagship education project has been dealt an embarrassing blow after inspectors demanded that three of the new wave of ‘free schools’ must improve their teaching, leadership and pupil performance. In the first official verdict on the Education Secretary’s free schools programme, Ofsted inspectors have ruled that three of the first nine institutions to be examined are “not good” schools.”
The Independent, 17th March 2013
Source: www.independent.co.uk
“Anna Heenan, solicitor and David Salter, Joint Head of Family Law at Mills & Reeve LLP analyse February’s financial remedies and divorce news and cases.”
Family Law Week, 5th March 2013
Source: www.familylawweek.com
“The UK’s data protection watchdog has outlined its intention to set new guidelines for journalists on the processing of personal data for the purposes of journalism.”
OUT-LAW.com, 21st February 2013
Source: www.out-law.com
“The probation service, which faces wholesale outsourcing under government plans, is ‘doing much good work’ with adult offenders but some aspects continue to require improvement, according to the chief inspector of probation.”
The Guardian, 21st February 2013
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
“ITV show Lorraine broke rules by allowing Dannii Minogue to promote a milk product she had a commercial deal to endorse, Ofcom has ruled.”
BBC News, 4th February 2013
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
“Every now and again, there is a Local Government Ombudsman report that seems to go beyond individual instances of maladministration and instead capture something of the zeitgeist. The LGO decision summarised here may well be one of the latter (certainly the Guardian thinks so), as arguably what it shows is a Local Authority prioritising its own administrative concerns over its legal duties in both its policy and the operation of policy. There is also a routine failure to ask the kind of questions that might have meant it had to do more. This on top of a series of administrative failures.”
NearlyLegal, 20th January 2013
Source: www.nearlylegal.co.uk
“At the end of what is always the busiest month of the year for gyms, the OFT is expected to announce that it will outlaw contracts that last longer than 12 months or do not contain a get-out clause for members who, for example, lose their job or sustain an injury. The move follows a year-long investigation into a number of gym chains, believed to include LA Fitness, Fitness First and Bannatyne’s. The OFT is also understood to be looking at debt collectors that some reports say use aggressive practices in chasing money owed to gym groups.”
The Guardian, 12th January 2013
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
“The advertising watchdog has criticised a magazine and a clothing firm for attempting to drum up business by using images of the late Jimmy Savile in email campaigns, including one which features the disgraced ex-presenter wearing what appears to be underwear while smoking a cigar.”
The Guardian, 9th January 2013
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
