Preferred candidate selected for post of Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman
1 July 2011 (updated on 1 July 2011)
Following an open recruitment exercise, Dame Julie Mellor, a partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers and previously the Chair of the Equal Opportunities Commission, has been selected as the preferred candidate for appointment as the new Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman, when Ann Abraham retires towards the end of 2011
The recruitment panel – which included the Chair of the Public Administration Select Committee and the Permanent Secretary of the Department of Health – concluded unanimously that Dame Julie was the best person to take the Office of the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman forward to meet the challenges expected over the next seven years. This recommendation has been agreed by the Prime Minister.
The Public Administration Select Committee will hold a pre-appointment hearing with Dame Julie on 6 July, and then – subject to the outcome of that hearing – the House of Commons will be asked to approve the appointment.
The final part of the process will be for the House of Commons to ask the Queen to make the appointment by letters patent, as provided for in the Parliamentary Commissioner Act 1967.