The great stonewall: How Mel Stride and Rishi Sunak have stymied 50swomen compensation

Posted on May 21, 2024 by davidhencke

After years of waiting for compensation for maladministration and discrimination some 3.5 million 50s born women have been left in limbo yet again even for the paltry sums of up to £2900 compensation recommended as a guideline by Rob Behrens, the former Parliamentary Ombudsman.

The explanation given by both Mel Stride and Rishi Sunak any time they are asked by MPs is that the Ombudsman’s report is so complicated that they will be spending an age to study it. They keep citing that it took Rob Behrens five years to write, deliberately ignoring that the Ombudsman unnecessarily paused his work for nearly two years while the Department for Work and Pensions was facing a judicial review over discrimination from Backto60 – now CEDAWinLAW.

In fact their excuse – which was never strong to start with – is rapidly wearing thin. The truth is that civil servants have had months to study the likely outcome of the Ombudsman’s report since it is not much different from the draft report he circulated – and was leaked on this blog – over 18 months ago..

And the Ombudsman knew that civil servants at the DWP then did not believe they had put a foot wrong and rejected any suggestion that there was any maladministration at all. Indeed their draft reply – also leaked on this blog – had the temerity to suggest that these women were a load of fraudsters who would put in fake claims so they certaInly should NOT get any compensation.

What is becoming clear to exasperated MPs whether on the Commons Work and Pensions Committee or the Public Administration and Constitution Affairs Committee is that the government have no intention of naming a date when they will reply. And the government know they do not have to implement the Ombudsman’s paltry findings because the law allows them to ignore or reject any recommendation from the Ombudsman.

As Jackie Doyle Price tweeted as the new Tory chair of PACAC : “We are extremely disappointed that the Government is unable to tell us when it is planning to respond to @PHSOmbudsman‘s report into the communication of state pension age changes to #50swomen.”

Indeed are the government going give them any money at all – just issue an apology. That is what Ben Wilkinson, the Telegraph’s head of money said in an article recently and it is echoed by the private pensions industry which was always opposed to the women getting any compensation. And there are signs that some Tories such as Samuel Kasumu, Boris Johnson’s former special adviser, think the same – though their MPs are wary of alienating 50swomen in case they lose even more votes at the next General Election.

Sir Keir Starmer Pic Credit: Chris McAndrew / UK Parliament

Labour are not much better – the party leadership abstained on a Scottish National Party motion- calling for compensation suggesting Sir Keir Starmer is not keen either. Many Labour backbenchers take a different view and have raised the issue of how unfairly the women have been treated.

What is also missing is a more rounded debate. It is centred – no doubt by Higginson Strategy, lobbyists for WASPI, solely on the demands of WASPI which seems content to accept the Ombudsman’s recommended findings.

The debate pushed by CEDAWinLAW for an alternative solution – mediation with Mel Stride, the work and pensions secretary , has been ignored by too many MPs. This too involves a compromise but Mel Stride is not playing. CEDAWinLAW’s lawyers judged it was unlawful of him not to agree to this. And it is pity through not having enough funds to go through the case and the threats of adverse costs by both the DWP and, at one stage, Waspi, that this could not go to court. Waspi. didn’t support any mediation either. Mel Stride has still to reply again to a letter from CEDAWinLAW’s lawyers.

CEDAWinLAW has asked the UN CEDAW committee in Geneva to open an inquiry into the government’s handling of this. If they do the Government will face international criticism and the UK’s reputation for fairness and treatment of women in society will be further damaged.

In the end the government know that by remaining silent they can delay this as long as they like. But ministers should be careful. Although a number of the women are now dead, there is still a sizeable number who could take their revenge on the government through the ballot box. And time is also running out for the government when they have to call a general election.

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How Rishi Sunak caused chaos at the Parliamentary Ombudsman’s office by blocking a smooth transition to Rob Behren’s successor

Posted on March 28, 2024 by davidhencke

Today’s scoop in the Financial Times by the paper’s Whitehall Editor, Lucy Fisher, has finally revealed why it has taken nearly three months for the Parliamentary Ombudsman’s board not to be able to appoint a permanent successor to Rob Behrens, the outgoing Ombudsman, who has just retired.

It appeared Nick Hardwick, was the Parliamentary Ombudsman Board’s choice. Hardwick is a former chair of the Parole Board who resigned after judges overturned a board decision to give parole to John Worboys, a notorious convicted rapist who attacked 12 women while working as a taxi driver. The proposal to release Worboys on parole was a cause celebre for the tabloids at the time. Rishi Sunak, who has to approve the appointment, appeared to have blocked it by sitting on a decision for nearly three months.

William Wragg, the chair of the Commons Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee, (PACAC)blew the whistle in Parliament on Monday night when he said, without naming Nick Hardwick, that his appointment had “seemingly been declined by Number 10.”

He also criticised the government for ” somewhat irregular behaviour ” during the appointment process. This is not surprising as William Wragg was on the panel who approved Nick Hardwick’s appointment.

This week PACAC released papers that appeared to give all the details of the recruitment process and a letter from Sir Alex Allan, Boris Johnson’s former independent adviser on ministerial interests, who resigned his job after Johnson refused to sack Priti Patel, then home secretary, after he found she had been bullying and swearing at her senior civil servants. He is now a senior non executive member of the Parliamentary Ombudsman board.

The papers do show that Rishi Sunak took a great interest in the appointment. In an earlier letter to William Wragg approving a salary of between £171,500 and £189,900 for the new Ombudsman plus a choice of a civil service or judicial pension, he wrote: “I would be grateful if the House could continue to work closely with the Government as the campaign to appoint the new PHSO progresses.”

The recruitment process does appear to have attracted a wide range of people. It shows that initially 52 people applied for the job. There were 31 male applicants, 20 female, and one who preferred not to say. Some 30 were white British, 5 Indian, 4 white non British,2 African, 2 Other mixed,1 Asian and White,1 Black African and White,1 Caribbean,1 Irish,1 Pakistani and 1 Ukrainian. Three preferred not to say.

Some 44 were heterosexual and two were gay and six preferred not to say or didn’t answer. Four people were disabled.

This was whittled down to 12 people – 7 males, 4 females and a person who preferred not to disclose a sex. Ten of the last 12 were White British and 1 white non British and one who preferred not to say. Nine of the people were heterosexual and one was gay and others preferred not to say.

The panel who interviewed them was chaired by Philippa Helme, a 63 year old independent panelist and a former principal clerk at the table office in the House of Commons. The other members are Shona Dunn (Second Permanent Secretary, Department of Health and Social Care) to cover the Ombudsman’s NHS role; Colleen Harris(independent panellist and appointed by the King to the King Charles III Charitable Foundation; Peter Tyndall (formerly President of the International Ombudsman Institute) and William Wragg MP.

Philippa Helme -pic credit: Houses of Parliament

All went smoothly and on January 8 Nick Hardwick, aged 66, who is now Professor of Criminal Justice at Royal Holloway College was chosen. Then the problems began when the appointment arrived on Rishi Sunak’s desk. There was silence. What is missing from public disclosure is a desperate letter written by Sir Alex Allan on January 29 which revealed that the whole process was in jeopardy and they might have to appoint an ” interim Ombudsman ” or else the PHSO could not function ( see my blog here ) . It was then that Rebecca Hilsenrath, a recently appointed chief executive at PHSO, came into the frame. The moment the PHSO and the committee knew I had seen the letter on the PACAC website and was going to publish, it mysteriously disappeared from public view. I was told it had been ” prematurely published.”. Now I know this wasn’t true because the letter has not resurfaced in the documents released this week.

As time went on and by March there was no endorsement from Rishi Sunak, things got more and more desperate. So Sir Alex Allan and William Wragg hatched a plan to appoint Rebecca Hilsenrath as an ” acting Ombudsman” so the office could continue to function near normally. This involved getting King Charles III to present a motion to Parliament proposing her appointment so MPs could approve it on the nod. This happened on Monday.

Now there is glowing description of Rebecca Hilsenrath’s qualities and experience in the papers released this week.

But once again there are some remarkable omissions about her career which have been swept under the carpet. When she was chief executive of the Equality and Human rights Commission, she carried out a campaign to sack black and disabled employees who happened to be strong trade unionists – a remarkable feat for a body that should champion diversity.

Also she was exposed in Times newspaper for a gross breach of the lockdown rules at the height of the pandemic when she drove from north London to north Wales to spend Christmas with her family of five children. She tried to say her holiday cottage was her main home – staying there for months. She was unmasked by a diligent local councillor who noted that unlike Michael Fabricant MP and Andy Street, the West Midlands Tory mayor, who never set foot in their nearby country cottages, was flagrantly breaching the lockdown.

This caused her trouble at the EHRC but she was thrown a lifeline when she got a job at the Parliamentary Ombudsman’s Office then run by Rob Behrens. She has now achieved a remarkable promotion courtesy of Rishi Sunak’s apparent blocking of Nick Hardwick for the top job.

All in all this is a sorry tale but to my mind the main point is that Rishi Sunak has usurped his powers to try and control a Parliamentary body that should be totally independent of government. If Nick Hardwick is not appointed after what looks like a fair process I shall not trust the new Ombudsman to be really independent but just a creature of a failing and interfering Prime Minister who is deservedly unpopular with the electorate today.