The Annual Report of the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales reveals that once again there has been an increase in the volume of casework. The number of complaints about public service providers has continued to rise, up 12% on 2011/12. The greatest increase has again been in relation to health bodies, up 30% on the previous year.

Community employees have to wear a yellow visibility vest with the label “community employment”. Ombudsman Máté Szabó criticises that this practise violates the principle of human dignity and the requirement of equal treatment.

Provincial Ombudsperson Kim Carter released her 2012/13 annual report on 18 June 2013. Nearly 7,500 inquiries and complaints were responded to and 1,900 early resolutions or investigations were completed in 2012/13.

The June edition of the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman reports on four investigation reports laid before the Scottish Parliament about four different health boards and gives more details on the case numbers received by the office in May 2013.

The Control Yuan (CY) held the 2013 workshop on protecting women’s rights on 7 June 2013. The workshop was attended by 320 participants from women’s groups, government organizations, and academia. Representatives of the relevant Executive Yuan ministries were also on hand to answer questions posed by the participants.

The African Ombudsman and Mediators Association (AOMA) recently released the 5^th Issue of its newsletter including a wide range of information on ombudsman institutions on the African continent. The Newsletter is available in English and French.

Ontario Ombudsman André Marin today called on the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services to crack the pervasive “code of silence” under which some guards in the province’s correctional institutions use excessive force against inmates and conspire to cover it up.

Registration is now open for the annual IOI training, which will be held from 15 – 18 September 2013 in Vienna, Austria. This training held in cooperation with the International Anti-Corruption Academy (IACA) is designed for ombudsman staff of institutions with an anti-corruption mandate.