BackIn 2020, the Parliamentary Ombudsman received a record 7,059 complaints. This is around 800 complaints more than in 2019 (6,267), which was also a record year for complaints.
Case numbers rose in nearly all administrative branches. The largest number of complaints concerned social welfare (1,196), the police (852) and health care (802). The strongest growth was observed in complaints related to teaching. In 2020, 466 complaints related to the Ministry of Education and Culture’s administrative branch were received, compared to 256 the previous year.
However, due to the coronavirus pandemic, the number of inspections decreased considerably, with only 23 inspections carried out in 2020 (104 in 2019).
The Ombudsman took 66 own initiatives and issued 83 statements that were for the most part related to legislative drafting.
The Ombudsman resolved a total of 7,027 complaints (6,057 in 2019) and 78 (63) of his own initiatives during the past year. A total of 963 complaints and 60 own-initiative investigations, nearly 15 per cent of all complaints, led to measures taken by the Ombudsman.
Corona pandemic-related complaints and own-initiative investigations
The Parliamentary Ombudsman received a total of 931 complaints related to the coronavirus pandemic, 601 of which were resolved in 2020. The Ombudsman took 22 own initiatives and issued 5 statements. The administrative branches in which the largest number of complaints were submitted were education (214), social welfare (155) and health care (125).
"2020 was very exceptional year with regard to the Ombudsman’s activities due to the strong increase in complaints and the coronavirus pandemic,” says Parliamentary Ombudsman Petri Jääskeläinen. However, the office was able to achieve the time target for processing complaints at the end of the year, when there were no complaints pending that had been submitted more than one year ago.
Source: Office of the Parliamentary Ombudsman, Finland
