The final cost of recruiting an Ombudsman at PHSO.
By David Czarnetzki
24th June 2024
Readers of PHSO The True Story will recall my article of May 4th 2024 in which I identified £51,339 plus VAT had been spent on the aborted process to find a replacement for Sir Rob Behrens, who completed his tenure as Ombudsman on 31st March 2024. This sum comprised of £38,138 paid to recruitment consultants GatenbySanderson and expenses of the recruitment panel amounting to £13,201.
The Prime Minister at the time was Rishi Sunak. He failed to endorse the recommended candidate of the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee (PACAC), overriding Parliament’s choice, thus demonstrating that the Ombudsman is NOT independent of Government.
The change of Government in July 2024 meant the process had to be repeated. The Freedom of Information Request below shows GatenbySanderson provided the same service with their fee reduced by over £10,000 and the interviewing panel’s expenses were also nearly £10,000 lower.
Freedom of Information Request F25-348Thank you for your request for information as copied below. As a follow-up to your previous request (our ref: F25-348) on the recruitment process for the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO), you asked us to repeat questions 2 & 6 of that request regarding the appointment of Paula Sussex as the new PHSO. We have therefore interpreted your questions in this instance to mean the total amount spent on Gatenby Sanderson for this recruitment process, the total expenses incurred by the interview panel, as well as which budget funded the recruitment process.
This information is held by the House of Commons.
The total amount spent with GatenbySanderson for this recruitment process was £28,000 (exc. VAT). The total expenses for the interview panel were £3,334 (exc. VAT). As before, the funding for this exercise came from the House of Commons’ budget.
Yours sincerely,
Thomas Spencer
Information Rights Officer
House of Commons Information Compliance Service
House of Commons, Palace of Westminster, London SW1A 0AA
I doubt we will ever find out why this recruitment process cost so much the first time round or, indeed, why PACAC’s recommendation was ignored. However, what we do know is the whole process cost taxpayers £82,723 plus VAT, a permanent Ombudsman should have been in place on 1st April 2024 and Paula Sussex, the current Prime Minister’s preferred candidate, has yet to start work. What a shambles.
phsothetruestory 
Thank you for monitoring this costly exercise. Recruitment process remains a mystery as does why such a seemingly important role remains vacant for so long.
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The appointment of Paula Sussex has been announced today on the PHSO website as below
26 June 2025
Paula Sussex has been appointed Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) by His Majesty King Charles.
Paula, a graduate of the London Business School and a trained barrister, will take up the role from 1 August 2025.
Paula Sussex
Arrangements are now in place, meaning all casework can progress as normal.
She joins PHSO from the financial technology firm OneID where she has been CEO since 2023.
Paula was CEO at the Student Loans Company from 2018 to 2022, and the Charity Commission, from 2014 to 2017.
She has extensive leadership experience, particularly in delivering major transformation and change programmes and services in the public, private and voluntary sectors.
She was awarded a CBE in 2022 for services to higher education.
Paula said:
“PHSO delivers an important service by both providing transparency and justice for people who have been let down by public service failings and also holding those responsible to account. It also has a unique opportunity to play an active role in the improvement of public service.
“A priority for me therefore as Ombudsman is to focus on the key themes where PHSO’s investigations and recommendations can have the greatest impact. By harnessing the insights we provide, we can help address underlying systemic challenges that affect many people who use public services.
“I am immensely honoured to be appointed as the new Ombudsman. I would like to thank Rebecca Hilsenrath for her excellent work as interim Ombudsman. I look forward to working together to build on the good work that has already been done, and to lead PHSO into the next chapter as we continue to strive for excellence.”
Rebecca Hilsenrath KC (Hon), Chief Executive of PHSO, said:
“I am delighted that Paula has been appointed and look forward very much to working closely with her. I am confident that our new partnership, together with the rest of the team, will provide the right leadership to support those who have been let down by public services, while driving forward systemic changes for the benefit of all.”
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For the benefit of all ……. I think she forgot to finish that sentence.
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Casework can proceed as normal. I can’t see that providing too much hope to the overwhelming majority of complainants if the uphold rate and Trust Pilot reviews are anything to go by
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Shared on Twitter and FB, although I believe I’m shadow banned,lol. Thanks, a very informative piece.
Treez
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We’ve always known the PHSO is not independent from the Government, and here’s the evidence. Not that evidence matters, moreover did it ever?
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Ditto Mark Benney’s comment.
What a great update on the costly pantomime that is the Parliamentary Ombudsman; all backed up with the Phso-The-Facts detective work and a well written FOI that got a response.
Other than being the PM’s choice, what else do we need to know about Paula Sussex?
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Great work David. I gather that some recruitment fees are based on the salary attached to the role. The fees for both processes were obviously excessive for the amount of work that must have been involved – nice work if you can get it. Bottom line – “shambles” is spot on. And as you rightly imply, there’s no guarantee that Sussex will ever get behind the desk – surely all that’s required is a signature by The King, so something fishy may still be going on. Maybe she’s twigged what a toxic and dysfunctional organisation it is.
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