The OA welcomes the Law Society’s commitment to finding workable solutions that increase access to justice, the approach taken to draw together existing thinking and recommendations, and in particular the commitment to work with those in the ombudsman landscape to strengthen it.
The benefits that a single trusted portal could deliver for the public, such as the ‘Solutions Explorer’, will not be realised unless there is also broad reform of the ‘Non-Court Dispute Resolution’ / ombudsman landscape.
Effective reform requires three strands of action: a review of gaps in redress into which some of the most vulnerable people in society are falling, and how best to close them; an ambitious programme of education to raise awareness and improve access to justice; and creation of a central point for leading ombudsman policy within government to galvanise action.