Appointment of the Judicial Appointments and Conduct Ombudsman
The Lord Chancellor has announced the appointment of the Judicial Appointments and Conduct Ombudsman.
The Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice, the Rt Hon Robert Buckland QC MP, is pleased to announce that Her Majesty the Queen has approved the appointment of Douglas Marshall as the Judicial Appointments and Conduct Ombudsman (JACO) for a period of 5 years commencing 1 March 2021.
This appointment follows an open recruitment campaign conducted in accordance with the Governance Code on Public Appointments and regulated by the Commission for Public Appointments.
The Ombudsman provides an independent ‘second tier’ investigation function in the handling of complaints involving judicial discipline or conduct, or the judicial appointments process (the Judicial Conduct and Investigation Office, and the Judicial Appointments Commission respectively, handle the ‘first tier’ investigations). The position is a statutory office established by the Constitutional Reform Act 2005.
JACO leads a small team of caseworkers to research and identify issues in these cases, the majority considering questions of process and fact before producing final reports and recommendations. There is no formal right to appeal the Ombudsman’s decisions.
Douglas Marshall carries out work for Cumbria Constabulary as a Police Staff Senior Investigating Officer and is a Director of Hawk Detective Services who are based in Scotland. He completed 30 years’ service with Cumbria Constabulary prior to returning in a staff capacity and, at the latter end of his service, was the Deputy National Co-ordinator on Operation Hydrant (the national policing response, oversight and co-ordination of non-recent child sexual abuse). He was Senior Investigating Officer on several high-profile cases in Cumbria.