Cecil Clothier - Ombudsman - Overview

Overview

Clothier departed the Office in 1984 regretful that he was alone among national Ombudsmen in the world in not having powers to investigate on his own initiative and that his jurisdiction was limited to not investigating personnel and contractual matters. He also had doubts about the requirement that complaints reach the office through Members of Parliament and considered the viability of a mechanism where complainants could contact the Office directly if they were dissatisfied with the progress made by the Member of Parliament in attending to the grievance. Nevertheless, Clothier had been an effective Ombudsman: 'a man of achievement and integrity; he liked to get things done and was unafraid to upset people en route.' He had worked to enhance public awareness of the Office and appeared in one cartoon as Superman. It had been important to Clothier 'to give the citizen a leg up against what must seem to him to be the impenetrable vastness of Whitehall'. And although he was criticised for the slowness of his investigations, he retorted that "my investigative powers are as good as you'll get in a democracy – the next best thing to the rack."