ABSTRACT
In many ways, ombudsmen can be judged as one of the few success stories in our system of administrative justice. This kind of informal dispute resolution mechanism is of some significance, particularly in terms of the number of individual disputes which are settled or grievances resolved. In practical terms, many more people will take a complaint to an ombudsman than will possibly be able to go to court through judicial review and, in this country, we have the most extensive system of individual ombudsman schemes in the world. This is largely because private companies adopted the ombudsman institution on a self-regulatory basis.
