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Final Report of the Select Committee on Complaints of Maladministration Made by Mrs a E S J Pilling

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Final Report of the Select Committee on Complaints of Maladministration Made by Mrs a E S J Pilling IvN 0012_ 102 FINAL REPORT OF THE SELECT COMMITTEE ON COMPLAINTS OF MALADMINISTRATION MADE BY MRS A E S J PILLING To: The Hon Noel Q Cringle, President of Tynwald, and the Hon Council and Keys in Tynwald assembled FINAL REPORT OF THE SELECT COMMITTEE ON COMPLAINTS OF MALADMINISTRATION MADE BY MRS AE S J PILLING I INTRODUCTION Terms of Reference of the Committee 1. At its October 2000 sitting, Tynwald Court resolved: "That, following the presentation of a petition for redress presented by Anne Elizabeth Saria Jill Pilling at Tynwald assembled at St John's on 5th July 2000, a Select Committee of three Members be appointed to consider:- (i) the circumstances surrounding the failure to make an audio recording of the High Court action between Mrs Pilling and the Department of Local Government and the Environment before Acting Deemster Michael Shorrock QC on 16th July 1998; and (ii) the application of the standardised procedure for complaints against Departments of the Isle of Man Government and Statutory Boards in respect of complaints allegedly made by Mrs Pilling between 1991 and 1993, and her complaint of the failure to record the 1998 court action; and to report." C /CMPil / mck Membership of the Committee 2.01 At the same sitting Mr L I Singer, Sir Miles Walker and Mr J N Radcliffe were appointed to serve on the Select Committee. At the sitting of the Court on 17th January 2002, Mrs H Hannan was elected to serve on your Committee in place of Sir Miles Walker who had retired at the General Election in November 2001. 2.02 Mr J N Radcliffe sadly died on 5th September 2002 in the closing stages of our investigation but before this Report was finalised. Chairman of the Committee 3. At the first meeting of the Committee, held on 31' October 2000, the Hon Member for Ramsey, Mr Singer, was elected Chairman. Interim Report of the Committee 4. At the sitting of the Court on 12th July 2001, your Committee's Interim Report on the first part of its remit was made, and it was resolved that the Report be received and its recommendations noted. The second part of the Committee's remit is now considered, namely:- the application of the standardised procedure for complaints against Departments of the Isle of Man Government and Statutory Boards in respect of complaints allegedly made by Mrs Pilling between 1991 and 1993, and her complaint of the failure to record the 1998 court action. 2 C/CMPi1/mck Evidence received with respect to the second part of the inquiry 5.01 Your Committee received and examined a substantial amount of written evidence in addition to that referred to in their Interim Report, and in addition to the oral evidence appended to it. A detailed list is at Appendix 1. We regret to record that answers to a number of our enquiries to DLGE were not forthcoming and we were obliged to send for and examine all the Department's files occupying two large boxes. In view of both the quantity and nature of this evidence in particular, the various papers and files are being retained in the Clerk of Tynwald's room, where they may be consulted by Members of Tynwald, or members of the public, by prior arrangement. 5.02 In this second phase of the investigation, your Committee proceeded on the basis of written rather than oral evidence because of the nature of the inquiry - that is, whether the Standardised Complaints Procedure was respected and how representations which should be treated as complaints were dealt with - which is essentially a matter of record. All the officials whose conduct is the subject of comment below were shown the passages of the draft Report relating to them and invited to confirm the accuracy of what is said; all of them, with the exception of Mr Barry Vannan, have replied to this invitation: their replies have been taken into account and the letters containing them are included in the publicly available evidence. Mrs Pilling, for her part, supplied us with full, detailed and helpfully organised documentation and replied to further enquiries in writing. 5.03 We regret that it was not possible, of course, to put to Mr Michael Savage, the former Chief Executive of DLGE, the passages where his actions are criticised; the investigation would, however, have been incomplete without these passages. 3 C/CMPi1/mck II THE ISSUES TO BE CONSIDERED The origin and terms of the standardised complaints procedure 6.01 For convenience, we will refer to the standardised complaints procedure as the "SCP". 6.02 The origin of the SCP was the Report of the Select. Committee of Tynwald in 1989 on the Appointment of an Ombudsman.' That Report concluded that there was insufficient evidence to determine whether it was necessary to establish an independent authority to consider complaints of maladministration and to assess administrative procedures operating on the Island. The Report recommended as an "interim" measure that a standardised complaints procedure should be introduced within the Isle of NI an Government for responding to complaints from the general public, accompanied by an annual report to Tynwald by the Chief Secretary on its operation. 6.03 The SCP that followed is reproduced at Appendix 2 to this Report. It was introduced in 1990 and became fully operational on 1st January 1991. It will be seen that its main features are:- (i) the five principles of accessibility, simplicity, speed, independence and confidentiality on which the SCP is based; (ii) flexibility in the implementation of the SCP in Departments (iii) a common description of what is to be regarded as a complaint. I Approved by Tynwald Court on 22 November 1989. 4 C/CMPil/mck 6.04 The following detailed features of the SCP may be noted:- (a) In relation to the identification of a "complaint", paragraph 1 of Appendix 1 to the SCP states that It is important to avoid too close a definition. Any problem or concern should be regarded as a potential complaint. (b) Paragraph 1(8) of Appendix 1 to the SCP provides that A complaint solely against a decision which is the subject of an independent appeal mechanism or where the mechanisms available for further review and appeal have not been exhausted does not warrant recording and, by implication, is not within the full system of the SCP itself; but paragraph 6 goes on to state that Where, in any particular case, there is doubt about whether the complaint should be recorded, it should be recorded. (c) The position of Members of Tynwald with regard to complaints is addressed at paragraph 8(vi) of the SCP, which provides:- A Member of Tynwald will always be deemed to have sufficient interest in any complaint that is brought to his attention. Where a complaint is lodged on behalf of a complainant by a Member of Tynwald, the standard procedure should be applied subject to the following additions:- (a) the Member concerned should be advised of developments in addition to the complaint; (b the Chief Officer and the Minister should be advised of any complaint lodged by a Member and should be advised of developments. (d) The purpose of the SCP is to make provision for complaints against officials. This is clear from: (i) the fact that the complaints in question are to be about maladministration which, by definition, relates to official 5 C/CMPil/mck rather than political action; (ii) responsibility for the operation of the SCP is entrusted to the Chief Officer of each Department or Board - paragraph 5 of the SCP; (iii) training to deal with complaints is for staff - paragraph 9 of the SCP. The questions to be answered 7.01 Your Committee have approached their task with these provisions in mind and have, accordingly, examined the evidence before them to identify - • first, any and every occasion on which Mrs Pilling can fairly be taken to have expressed herself in terms which should have been recognised as a complaint; • secondly, what action was taken on such occasions; and • thirdly, whether - and if so what - loss or damage Mrs Pilling can be said to have suffered as a result of any failure to give effect to the requirements of the SCP. 7.02 In addition, we refer briefly to a further matter raised with us by Mrs Pilling, namely a complaint about the appointment of a member of the judiciary, which was outside our remit. 6 C/CMPi1/mck III DEPARTMENT OF LOCAL. GOVERNMENT AND THE ENVIRONMENT 1991-1993 Introduction 8.01 The object of Mrs Pilling's grievance so far as the Department for Local Government and the Environment ("DLGE") is concerned is the role discharged by Mr Brian Sinden, who was DLGE's Development Control Officer for Douglas and South of Island. The complaint is that Mr Sinden dealt on a number of occasions with planning applications and planning business generally, which immediately concerned Mrs Pilling because he was (a) a local resident liable to be affected and (b) his late wife was, at certain stages, a member of the Board of Commissioners for the parish of Arbory,2 which was the relevant local authority. In reviewing the detailed evidence of Mrs Pilling's dealings with DLGE, therefore, we have focussed on Mr Sinden's involvement with Mrs Pilling's planning affairs. 8.02 Between 1988 and 1993, Mrs Pilling made four planning applications in respect of land that she owned at Colby, in the parish of Arbory, behind an existing residential development known as Cronk-y-Thatcher. Mrs Pilling's land was some 10.25 acres in size and she wished to develop it for residential use.
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