Section 45 - Criteria for own initiative investigations
173.Section 45 requires the Ombudsman to publish the criteria that the Ombudsman will use when deciding whether to carry out an own initiative investigation under Part 5 (and under section 44(3)(d), the Ombudsman must have regard to these criteria before beginning an own initiative investigation).
174.Before publishing the first criteria, the Ombudsman must lay a draft of the criteria before the Assembly. The draft criteria will be subject to a negative resolution procedure. This means that the Assembly has 40 days to object to the criteria. If the Assembly does not object within those 40 days, the Ombudsman must publish the criteria in the form of the draft laid before the Assembly. If the Assembly resolves not to approve the draft criteria, section 45(3) prohibits the Ombudsman from publishing the criteria in the form of the draft but section 45(6) clarifies that the provisions of section 45(3) do not prevent the Ombudsman from laying new draft criteria before the Assembly.
175.Once the criteria have been published, the Ombudsman can revise and republish the criteria. But if a revision makes any material changes to the criteria, then the draft revision must be laid before the Assembly and the negative resolution procedure will apply to the draft revisions it applied to the draft criteria.
176.The Welsh Ministers may make regulations to amend the criteria. Such regulations follow an affirmative resolution procedure. This means the regulations must be approved by the Assembly – if the Assembly does not approve the regulations then they do not take effect. But if the Assembly does approve the regulations, the Ombudsman must update the published criteria to reflect the changes made by the regulations.
177.Both the Ombudsman and the Welsh Ministers must consult before proposing criteria (or proposing material changes to criteria) under this section.