31
July 2020

The
Office of the Ombudsman’s annual report for 2019 was tabled in the
Legislative Assembly Wednesday, 29 July, showing a year of
significant growth and accomplishment.

The
office added significant capacity during the year, enabling it to
respond more robustly to data protection and maladministration
complaints, both of which increased during 2019. The office has also
managed to work through a daunting number of backlogged public
complaints against the RCIPS, where a total of 144 historical matters
initially brought to the RCIPS under a previous version of the Police
Law have been resolved.

The
Office of the Ombudsman was formed in September 2017 via an
amalgamation of the previous Office of the Complaints Commissioner,
which dealt with maladministration issues, and the Information
Commissioner’s Office, which handled Freedom of Information
appeals. The new office was given the added responsibilities of
investigating citizen complaints against police, data protection
complaints and whistleblower complaints.

“Although
it has taken a little more than two years to bring all these
responsibilities under one roof, with the appropriate legislation in
place, the Office of the Ombudsman is now firing on all cylinders and
is truly the one-stop-shop that was envisioned by the legislature,”
said Sandy Hermiston, Ombudsman.

Cayman’s
Data Protection Law took effect on September 30th,
2019 – an important step in the development of privacy protection
and international business in the Cayman Islands. Data protection was
the busiest section for the Ombudsman’s office in 2019, receiving
192 enquiries, as well as 12 complaints from members of the public
and 25 complaints from organisations during the year. The Ombudsman’s
office spent a significant amount of time during 2019 in public
consultation meetings seeking to educate both the public and private
sector about this new legislation and that effort continues in 2020.

“Overall,
the number of enquiries handled by the Office of the Ombudsman in
2019 increased by almost 60 per cent and data protection is a big
reason for that increase,” Ms. Hermiston said.

The
maladministration/whistleblower investigations team was also quite
busy for the year, receiving a total of 106 enquiries, compared to
just 58 in 2018. The team resolved 75 complaints in 2019.

Enquiries
from the public about police conduct also increased from 18 in 2018
to 33 in 2019. The actual number of police complaints received were
62 in 2019, in addition to the 67 carried forward from 2018. The
two-person police investigations team managed to handle these new
cases while at the same time clearing up the historical backlog of
cases the Ombudsman’s office inherited, resolving 105 complaints in
2019.

The
Ombudsman’s office also handled a total of 60 Freedom of
Information enquiries, compared to 87 enquiries during 2018, the only
area where the Ombudsman’s case load was reduced. However, the
Ombudsman issued a record-breaking 12 FOI decisions in 2019, in the
tenth year since the coming into force of the FOI Law.

Ms.
Hermiston noted that there are challenges the office continues to
encounter as it develops, particularly with the general understanding
of the maladministration complaints process within government
departments, ministries and portfolios. The Ombudsman is still
finding that many of these entities do not have a formal internal
complaints process for members of the public to use.

“The
lack of such policies can cause confusion and delay when complainants
come to our office for assistance,” Ms. Hermiston said.

Analysts
have also noted there are still some significant gaps in
understanding of the Data Protection Law on the part of individuals
and businesses around the islands which the Ombudsman is helping to
address via public education and outreach efforts.

To
review the full 2019 annual report, please check the Office of the
Ombudsman website at
https://ombudsman.ky/images/pdf/Annual_Report_2019.pdf.

If
you have a matter that you think should be reviewed by the Ombudsman,
please contact us at 946-6283 or email us at info@ombudsman.ky