AUSTRALIA | Western Australian Ombudsman Annual Report 2014-15

The Western Australian Ombudsman tabled his 2014-15 Annual Report in Parliament. The report outlines the work of the Office for the year including:

We received 11,143 contacts, comprised of:

• 9,096 enquiries; and
• 2,047 complaints.
• We finalised 98% of complaints within 3 months.
• We achieved a 21% reduction in the time to finalise complaints compared to last year.

Since 2007, we have decreased the age of complaints from 173 days to 21 days; and

• Reduced the cost of resolving complaints by 37%.
• 100% of our Recommendations were accepted.

We received:

• 33 investigable child deaths; and
• 16 reviewable family and domestic violence fatalities.
• Significant work was undertaken on a major own motion investigation into issues associated with Violence Restraining Orders and their relationship with family and domestic violence fatalities.

We also commenced a major own motion investigation into ways to prevent or reduce child deaths by drowning and co-hosted the 4th Australasian Conference on Child Death Inquiries and Reviews.

We commenced our role to monitor the Infringement Notices provisions of The Criminal Code. Additionally, we enhanced regional awareness and access to the Office through visits to Kalgoorlie-Boulder and Northam.

Source: Western Australia Ombudsman