Amerdeep Somal has been named as the preferred candidate for the role of Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, taking up the position in January.
The provisional appointment will be reviewed by the levelling up, housing and communities select committee in September and confirmed by royal warrant later this year.
Somal is currently Financial Regulators Complaints Commissioner and chief commissioner at the Data and Marketing Commission. She is also a judge of the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal and a former founding commissioner of the Independent Police Complaints Commission.
She is the incoming board chair of the Law Society, a role she will take on in January alongside her position as ombudsman, and is a board member for the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman.
‘I am delighted to be taking on this hugely important role and the leadership of the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman organisation, which has extensive influence on the quality of council services and social care across the country,’ she said.
‘The ombudsman has a vital role both in ensuring that individual complaints are investigated – and wrongdoing put right – and in being a central part of the wider system that brings about fundamental change and improvement in these essential services. I look forward to taking on the ombudsman position which helps to improve the quality of life for so many people, including some of society’s most vulnerable.’
Paul Najsarek, the interim Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, will remain in post until January.
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