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TERMS
OF REFERENCE
1. The Prisoner Ombudsman, who is appointed by the Secretary
of State for Northern Ireland, is independent of the
Northern Ireland Prison Service and reports to the Secretary
of State.
2. With effect from 1 September 2005 the remit of the Prisoner Ombudsman was extended as required by the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland to investigate deaths in Prison Service Custody
3. The Ombudsman will investigate complaints submitted
by individual prisoners and ex-prisoners who have failed
to obtain satisfaction from the NIPS complaints system
and who are eligible in other respects.
4. The Ombudsman will normally act on the basis only
of eligible complaints from those individuals described
in paragraph 2 (above) and not on those from other individuals
or organisations.
5. The Ombudsman will be able to consider the merits
of matters complained of as well as the procedures involved.
6. The Ombudsman will be able to investigate all decisions
relating to individual prisoners taken by NIPS staff
and decisions involving the clinical judgement of healthcare
staff.
7. The Terms of Reference do not cover:
• policy decisions taken by a Minister and the
official advice to Ministers upon which such decisions
are based:
• the merits of decisions taken by Ministers,
except in cases which have been approved by Ministers
for consideration by the Prisoner Ombudsman;
• personal exercise by Ministers of their function
in the certification of tariff and the release of mandatory
life sentenced prisoners;
• actions and decisions outside the responsibility
of the NIPS such as issues about conviction and sentence;
cases currently the subject of civil litigation or criminal
proceedings, and the decisions and recommendations of
outside bodies such as the judiciary, the police, the
Director of Public Prosecutions, the Immigration Service,
the Probation Service, the Sentence Review Commissioners,
Life Sentence Review Commissioners, Remission of Sentences
Commissioners, Loss of Remission Commissioners and their
secretariat;
• actions and decisions taken by contracted-out
service providers; and
• the actions and decisions of people working
in prisons but not employed in NIPS.
SUBMITTING COMPLAINTS
AND TIME LIMITS
8. Before putting a grievance to the Ombudsman, a complainant
must first seek redress through appropriate use of the
NIPS complaints procedures. Complainants will have confidential
access to the Ombudsman and no attempt should be made
to prevent a complainant from referring a complaint to
the Ombudsman.
9. The Ombudsman will consider complaints for possible
investigation if the complainant is dissatisfied with
the reply from the NIPS or receives no final reply within
six weeks.
10. Complainants submitting their case to the Ombudsman
must do so within 30 days of receiving a substantive reply
from NIPS. However, the Ombudsman will not normally accept
complaints where there has been a delay of more than 12
months between the complainant becoming aware of the relevant
facts and submitting their case to the Ombudsman, unless
the delay has been the fault of NIPS.
11. Complaints submitted after these deadlines will not
normally be eligible. However, the Ombudsman has discretion
to consider those where there is good reason for the delay,
or where the issues raised are so serious as to override
the time factor.
DETERMINING
ELIGIBILITY OF A COMPLAINT
12. The Ombudsman will examine complaints to consider
whether they are eligible. To assist in this process,
where there is some doubt or dispute as to the eligibility
of a complaint, the Ombudsman will inform NIPS of the
nature of the complaint and, where necessary, NIPS will
then provide the Ombudsman with such documents or other
information as the Ombudsman considers relevant to considering
eligibility.
13. The Ombudsman may decide not to accept a complaint
or to continue any investigation where it is considered
that the complaint is vexatious or repetitious or frivolous
or no worthwhile outcome can be achieved or the complaint
raises no substantial issue. The Ombudsman is also free
not to accept for investigation more than one complaint
from a complainant at any one time unless the matters
raised are serious or urgent.
ACCESS TO DOCUMENTS FOR
THE INVESTIGATION
14. The Director General of the Northern Ireland Prison
Service will ensure that the Ombudsman has unfettered
access to NIPS documents. This will include classified
material and information entrusted to that service by
other organisations, provided this is solely for the purpose
of investigations within the Ombudsman’s terms of
reference and subject to the safeguards referred to below
for the withholding of information from the complainant
and public in some circumstances.
LOCAL SETTLEMENT
15. It will be open to the Ombudsman in the course of
investigation of a complaint to seek to resolve the matter
by local settlement.
VISITS AND INTERVIEWS
16. In conducting an investigation the Ombudsman and staff
will be entitled to visit all NIPS establishments, after
making arrangements in advance for the purpose of interviewing
the complainant, employees and other individuals, and
for pursuing other relevant inquiries in connection with
investigations within the Ombudsman’s Terms of Reference
and subject to the safeguards set out below.
DISCLOSURE
OF SENSITIVE INFORMATION
17. In accordance with the practice applying throughout
government departments, the Ombudsman will follow the
Government’s policy that official information should
be made available unless it is clearly not in the public
interest to do so. Such circumstances will arise when
disclosure is:
• against the interests of national security;
• likely to prejudice security measures designed
to prevent the escape of particular prisoners or classes
of prisoners;
• likely to prejudice the safety of staff;
• likely to be detrimental on medical or psychiatric
grounds to the mental or physical health of a prisoner
or anyone described in paragraph 3 of those terms of reference;
• likely to prejudice the administration of justice
including legal proceedings; or
• of papers capable of attracting legal professional
privilege.
18. NIPS staff providing information should identify any
details which they consider needs to be withheld on any
of the above named grounds with a further check undertaken
on receipt of the draft report from the Ombudsman.
DRAFT INVESTIGATION
REPORTS
19. Before issuing a final report on an investigation,
the Ombudsman will send a draft to the Director General
of NIPS, to allow the Prison Service to draw attention
to points of factual inaccuracy, to confidential or sensitive
material which it considers ought not to be disclosed,
and to allow any identifiable persons subject to criticism
an opportunity to make representations.
RECOMMENDATIONS BY THE
OMBUDSMAN
20. Following an investigation all recommendations will
be made either to the Secretary of State or Director General
of NIPS, as appropriate, to their roles, duties and powers.
FINAL REPORTS AND
RESPONSES TO COMPLAINTS
21. The Ombudsman will reply to all those whose complaints
have been investigated, sending copies to NIPS, and making
any recommendations at the same time. The Ombudsman will
also inform complainants of the response to any recommendations
made.
22. The Ombudsman has a target date to give a substantive
reply to the complainant within 12 weeks from accepting
the complaint as eligible. Progress reports will be given
if this is not possible.
NIPS RESPONSE TO RECOMMENDATIONS
23. The NIPS has a target of four weeks to reply to recommendations
from the Ombudsman. The Ombudsman should be informed of
the reasons for delay when it occurs.
ANNUAL REPORT
24. The Ombudsman will submit an annual report to the
Secretary of State, following the end of the financial
year. The report will include:
• a summary of the number of complaints received
and answered, the principal subjects and the office’s
success in meeting time targets;
• examples of replies given in anonymous form and
examples of recommendations made and of responses;
• any issues of more general significance arising
from individual complaints on which the Ombudsman has
approached the NIPS; and
• a summary of the costs of the office.
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