Browne and the CSR: it is time for Plan B (part 5)

As someone who was intimately involved in the extensive consultation over the Office of the Independent Adjudicator and its subsequent establishment, I was surprised to learn that the Browne Review in effect recommends that it becomes part of a regulatory body under government control.

This makes no practical sense. Since its creation, the OIA has developed a highly talented team that now has unrivalled experience of complaints-handling procedures across the system. It has established a reputation for fair, independent and cost-effective judgements.

Amalgamation with other bodies would risk losing some of this experience and require taking on inexperienced workers to replace lost talent, for it would not be possible to run the operation with fewer case handlers and maintain an acceptable level of service for the sector.

It would be short-sighted folly to jeopardise all that has been earned in the OIA's short existence, at no gain in either quality of service or cost.

Norman Gowar, Stone-cum-Ebony, Kent.