Mr. Peter Tyndall:

There are differences between the two offices, but there are many similarities, too. The offices in Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland work closely together because they are of a similar scale. The scale of some of the other offices means that solutions that work for them would not work for us.

If there were to be a conference for ombudsman offices, there would be a workshop on repeat complaints. It is one of the perennial difficulties, on which one needs to have a clear policy. Repeat complainants actually may have had a grain of reason at the start of the process. People can start out reasonably, but they turn into Victor Meldrew after repeated failures to obtain sensible and proper responses to their complaints. Sometimes, one has to draw the line and tell people carefully that too many of the office’s resources are being used and all the answers available have been given. Then at some future point, one can promise to read correspondence but not to respond to it. Some people, unfortunately, often for good reasons, are just unable to move on and the complaint consumes their lives. Members will recognise this.