BERMUDA | Ombudsman for Bermuda Annual Report 2025 Tabled

Michael DeSilva, the Ombudsman for Bermuda, has submitted his Annual Report for 2025 to the Speaker of the House of Assembly in accordance with his statutory duty under the Ombudsman Act 2004. The report was tabled in the House of Assembly on 26 June 2026, and it is now available to the public.

The Ombudsman’s Office worked on 277 cases in 2025, comprising 225 new cases received during the year, and 52 cases carried forward from 2024. Of the new cases, 183 were formal complaints, and 42 were enquiries seeking guidance.

By year’s end, 187 complaints had been closed, 47 complaints and 1 enquiry remained open. This is a modest improvement on the 52 cases carried forward from the previous year, with 83% of the year’s total caseload closed by 31st December. 92 complaints were found to be outside the Office’s jurisdiction, 72 of which received additional resource information or were referred to a more appropriate authority.

Among the year’s most significant cases was a mooring registration error affecting a local fisherman’s family that had gone uncorrected for nearly two decades. Having identified five instances of maladministration by the Department of Marine and Ports Services, and having received what he considered an inadequate response to his recommendations, the Ombudsman submitted a special report — entitled “Between a Dock and a Hard Place” — to the Speaker of the House of Assembly in July 2025. The report found that, across three separate opportunities spanning more than 20 years, the Department had failed to register mooring piles in the family’s name as originally required by the Development Applications Board in 2001.

2025 also marked the Office’s 20th anniversary. A reception was held on 9th October at the Hamilton Princess & Beach Club, timed to coincide with International Ombuds Day, and attended by His Excellency the Governor, Mr. Andrew Murdoch CMG; the Chief Justice of Bermuda, the Hon. Justice Larry Mussenden JP; the Premier’s representative, the Hon. Owen Darrell JP MP; and other senior officials and heads of public authorities. Both of the Office’s former Ombudsmen, Ms Arlene Brock and Ms Victoria Pearman, joined the celebration, alongside many of the 47 people who have served the Office over its 20-year history.

In April, the Office was re-validated by the Ombudsman Association in the UK, confirming that its standards of independence, fairness, effectiveness, openness, and accountability meet the Association’s published criteria — an assessment conducted every four to five years.

The question of resourcing remained pressing in 2025. The Office renewed its business case for two additional staff positions, noting that it handles more complaints annually than comparable bodies such as the Human Rights Commission, the Information Commissioner’s Office, and the Privacy Commissioner’s Office, all of which have larger teams. The matter was discussed publicly in a year-end interview with the Royal Gazette marking the Office’s anniversary.

Mr. DeSilva said, “2025 was, in many ways, defined by the resilience of the people inside this Office. We lost a third of our team in quick succession, and every member of staff stepped forward to keep our work moving — quietly, professionally, and without complaint. I do not take that for granted.”

Mr. DeSilva added, “The case for additional capacity is not made in the interest of institutional expansion. It is made in the interest of the people who wait longer than they should for their complaints to be resolved. We will continue to make that case.”

The Ombudsman’s Annual Report 2025 is available to download at www.ombudsman.bm. Members of the public are invited to contact the Office at contact@ombudsman.bm or 296-6541 with any questions or to make a complaint. The Office also provides free presentations about its work to community groups, public authorities, or any other interested parties.

Source: The Bermuda Ombudsman