BackThe institution focused its efforts on facilitating access by the public to the services that it provides. It reduced its average response times and reformed its website to optimise transparency and report on all the activities that it carries out. At present it takes on average 27.99 days to reply to the general public, compared with 62 days in 2013. Four surveys were published on the website to gather first-hand information that the institution will use to draw up reports on relevant matters: needs of coeliac disease sufferers, architectural barriers in roads and public spaces, start of the school year and assignment of credits.
The following annual reports were published: the Annual Report 2015, the National Mechanism for the Prevention of Torture (NMP) Annual Report 2015, an activity report for the first six months of 2016 and the following monographs:
Children and adolescents in the Ombudsman’s Office report 2015; People with disability in the Ombudsman’s Office report 2015; Asylum in Spain; International protection and the resources of the reception system; the rights of ETA’s victims; their situation today
RELEVANT UNDERTAKINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
The Institution lodged more than 1700 resolutions, addressed to the different government authorities to propose changes in regulations and improvements for the general public and undertook 870 own-initiative inquiries. The most relevant matters dealt with throughout the year were:
Refugees
26 recommendations were made to improve the system for the reception and integration of people seeking refuge in Spain. Likewise, a common policy on asylum has been called for throughout the EU “to avoid bureaucracy and different criteria in procedures and deadlines from turning requests into labyrinths for applicants and public servants”. In October, in conjunction with UNHCR, the institution organised a conference to promote coordination between government authorities and speed up the intake of refugees and their integration in Spain. In December the Ombudsman, Soledad Becerril, visited the Thermopylae and Eloneas refugee camps in Greece.
Gender violence
Recommendations were made to the government authorities to enhance risk detection and protection of women victims of mistreatment and their children. After asking the Office of the Ombudsman to update the police assessment indicators, the Police Headquarters introduced a new protocol for police assessment of the risk of gender violence and for managing victim safety.
Protection of mortgager
The ruling by the European Union Court of Justice of 21 December 2016 obliges banks to give back everything charged with mortgage ground clauses. The Office of the Ombudsman proposed that an extrajudicial system be created that avoids customers concerned from having to take the matter to court. The Office also insisted on the need to regulate the provision of debt collection services for sums unpaid, to avoid some companies using barely ethical debt-collection methods.
Commissions at cash dispensers
The charge of new commissions for withdrawing money from cash dispensers that do not belong to the bank that issued the card was what led to the investigation undertaken by the institution, which advocated applying a maximum rate and giving clear, precise information that enables customers to decide which cash dispenser to use.
Environment
Fourteen town councils were asked about their short-term plans for combatting air pollution and about the information that the general public was provided with. The Regional Government of the Balearic Islands was also asked to explain the reduction in environmental protection of natural areas, after the law on environmental assessment, passed in August, came into force. The institution also asked the government authorities for information after the fire that broke out at Seseña tyre dump.
Retired writers’ pensions
The “Seguir Creando” (Keep Creating) Platform, composed of artists and creators, asked for the Office of the Ombudsman to intervene regarding the situation facing many professionals from the world of culture, who have had to choose between continuing their artistic work or collecting their retirement pension. The institution asked the Government for greater flexibility in order to make collecting the full pension compatible with income from professional activities.
Cancer patients
Steps were taken to protect the rights of cancer patients, for example to iron out possible shortcomings in the care for children; to find out whether there are delays in incorporating the new antitumorals into the Spanish National Health System; to see to it that genomic tests for determining the suitability of chemotherapy in breast cancers are incorporated into the portfolio of services and provide hospitals with cancer specialists, if they did not have these members of staff.
Protecting pupils with disability
Investigations were undertaken at the Department of State for Education, Vocational Training and Universities and the Regional Departments of Education of the self-governing regions on regulating the conditions that special education classrooms have to possess that function in ordinary centres, used for attending to pupils with generalised developmental disorders (GDD). Own-initiative inquiries were also undertaken at Spanish state-run universities to find out whether their admission procedures for Master’s and PhD degrees provide for keeping a percentage of places for students with disability.
Assaults on public servants
The Office of the Ombudsman also inquired about the increase in assaults on public servants and is conducting an inquiry in this respect.
Human trafficking
Recommendations were made to improve coordination between national and self-governing regional security corps and forces in the fight against human trafficking and to process, on a preferential basis, applications for authorising residence and work permits on the grounds of exceptional circumstances lodged by the victims of this crime.
Spanish prisoners abroad
The Office of the Ombudsman continued its work to ensure that Spanish prisoners abroad receive the visits and help necessary on the part of the consular offices, especially as regards access to medication and information about their procedural and penitentiary situation. The Office of the Ombudsman also intervened to speed up the transfer to Spain for prisoners who have already been convicted and carried out activities of a humanitarian nature.
Activity of the National Mechanism for the Prevention of Torture (NMP)
In 2016, more than 100 visits were made to detention centres. The NMP made 10 recommendations, 319 suggestions and gave 3 reminders of legal duties. It also undertook 131 own-initiative inquiries. What is more, staff from the Ombudsman institution supervised two flights for repatriating foreign nationals, arranged by Spain (FRONTEX flight), from Madrid to Colombia and the Dominican Republic.
Source: Office of the Ombudsman, Spain
