Die Beauftragte für die Landespolizei Rheinland-Pfalz, Barbara Schleicher-Rothmund, hat ihren Tätigkeitsbericht 2024/2025 vorgestellt und zieht damit Bilanz aus acht Jahren unabhängiger Begleitung der Polizei. Seit 2017 unterstützt sie die Polizei Rheinland-Pfalz in Fragen der Transparenz, der Führungskultur, der Rechtsstaatlichkeit und der Bürgernähe. Ziel ihrer Arbeit ist es, das Vertrauen der Bürgerinnen und Bürger in eine moderne und rechtsstaatlich handelnde Polizei nachhaltig zu stärken. „Eine rechtsstaatlich arbeitende Polizei braucht Vertrauen – und Vertrauen entsteht durch Transparenz, Dialog und die Bereitschaft, aus Fehlern zu lernen“, erklärt Schleicher-Rothmund.

In den vergangenen zehn Jahren gingen insgesamt 1.656 Bürgereingaben und 291 unabhängige Eingaben aus der Polizei ein. Im aktuellen Berichtszeitraum 2024/2025 wurden 262 Neueingaben an die Beauftragte für die Landespolizei herangetragen. Diese teilten sich in 172 zulässige Eingaben von Bürgerinnen und Bürgern und 16 Eingaben von Polizisten auf. 74 Eingaben wurden anderweitig behandelt. Viele dieser Hinweise führten zu konkreten Verbesserungen in internen Abläufen, Verfahren und Führungsstrukturen.

Die Einrichtung des Amtes hat gezeigt, wie parlamentarische Kontrolle, Transparenz und Bürgerbeteiligung erfolgreich miteinander verzahnt werden können. Ein Schwerpunkt der Arbeit liegt auf der Förderung einer Kultur der kritischen Selbstreflexion, einer offenen Fehlerkultur sowie einer Führungsverantwortung, die Lernen aus Fehlern ernst nimmt.

„Eine moderne Polizei braucht Führungskräfte, die Verantwortung übernehmen und Veränderung vorleben“, so die Beauftragte.

Das Amt versteht sich als Brücke zwischen Bürgerinnen und Bürgern, Polizei und Parlament. Durch die unabhängige Begleitung werden Herausforderungen frühzeitig erkennbar, Lösungsprozesse unterstützt und ein offener Dialog zwischen den beteiligten Akteuren gefördert. Zugleich betont Schleicher-Rothmund die unverzichtbare Rolle der Polizei Rheinland-Pfalz für Sicherheit und Rechtsstaatlichkeit im Land.

Wir laden alle Interessierten ein, diesen Bericht aufmerksam zu lesen und sich ein Bild von der engagierten Arbeit der Beauftragten für die Landespolizei zu machen. Gemeinsam können wir dazu beitragen, die Sicherheit und das Wohlbefinden in unserem Land zu fördern.

Für weitere Informationen und Interviewanfragen stehen wir Ihnen gerne zur Verfügung.

An investigation by England’s Health Ombudsman following the death of a 67-year-old woman has triggered a systemic review of cancer treatment and diagnosis wait times at Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust.

The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) recently investigated the care of Mrs S who was treated at Broomfield Hospital, run by the Trust, in 2023.

The retired history teacher and mother-of-two from Chelmsford, had terminal ovarian cancer and died in April that year. Her son, who was 29 when his mother died, raised concerns about her care. PHSO’s subsequent investigation found there had been a delay in diagnosing and treating his mother’s cancer.

Mrs S’s diagnosis took 49 days and her treatment did not start for 81 days after the referral. NHS England targets at the time were for cancer to be diagnosed within 28 days of referral and treatment to begin within 62 days. After her son complained about his mother’s treatment, the Trust said that it had improved its performance on cancer wait times. However, PHSO’s investigation found the Trust’s performance against its treatment targets had declined.

In 2023, at the time Mrs S was being treated, the Trust failed to meet all of the NHS England cancer wait time targets. Only 47.6% of patients were treated within 62 days, compared to the national target of 85%. By July 2025, that had dropped to 46.1%. Trust figures show that at the end of August, 664 patients were waiting longer than 62 days to confirm a cancer diagnosis, or rule it out, and begin treatment.

Following its investigation, PHSO took the unusual step of asking the Trust to systemically review its performance against national cancer wait time targets, and develop a robust plan to help it meet treatment targets. 

The action plan has been received and the Trust has committed to look at how it can better allocate resources and increase capacity to reduce wait times. The Trust will use new technology to improve efficiency by standardising and digitising processes, and specialist software to analyse cancer pathways and identify delays.

The Trust will also hold weekly meetings to track progress and ensure the longest waiting patients are prioritised and implement a one-stop menopausal bleeding clinic which will offers scans and a consultant review at the first appointment to help with timely diagnosis.

Paula Sussex, Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman, said, 

Every day, hundreds of people receive a diagnosis of cancer. It is vital that they can trust in the system to deliver the quality treatment they need for their survival, recovery, or, in terminal conditions, to allow them to spend precious time with loved ones.

 

“Learning from past failings and continually improving services should be the lifeblood of the NHS. I am aware that the Trust has faced organisational challenges that exacerbated pressures brought by the pandemic, and they have worked to find an effective operating model, including leadership changes and a new programme to better listen to frontline voices. 

 

“In this case, we recommended that the Trust should investigate its performance against national targets and make a robust plan for how it will improve. The Trust has committed to carrying out this work and will be rolling out new technology to help it allocate resources more efficiently and increase capacity for cancer appointments. 

 

“While this will sadly not change what happened in this case, it highlights how one complaint can make a difference. Because of this investigation, other patients and families should experience wait times that are in line with national guidance.”

Mrs S visited her GP in January 2023 as she had uncomfortable abdominal bloating. After receiving concerning blood test results, the GP referred her to the Trust. 

A CT scan on 16 February showed the presence of cancer but clinicians could not identify the type of cancer until a biopsy on 15 March. Mrs S was diagnosed with ovarian cancer on 21 March. She was told that while it was not survivable, chemotherapy may extend her life.

Chemotherapy was scheduled for 21 April but due to the delays in diagnosis and treatment, Mrs S was no longer fit for the treatment. This meant she lost the opportunity to engage in chemotherapy, and her family will never know whether or not this could have improved her quality of life or extended her life to give her more time with her family. This is a serious injustice to them.

PHSO found that had the Trust met the national cancer standard for referral to treatment, Mrs S’s palliative care should have begun on or before 3 April. At that point, her medical records indicate that she would have been fit for treatment. 

When the Trust told her that her cancer was not survivable, it should have considered starting a palliative care pathway. There is no evidence this happened and there was no coordination of her palliative care between the hospital and the hospice, delaying her access to this care.

The Ombudsman found further failings in care including delays draining her ascites (fluid build up in the abdomen) which caused avoidable distress. 

The Trust also unsafely discharged Mrs S from hospital on 18 April. She was readmitted three days later in a serious condition. She died the next day.

PHSO found the failings by the Trust caused distress to Mrs S and her family. The Trust had not acknowledged the extent of its failings or taken appropriate action to address them.

Along with the cancer wait times review, PHSO recommended the Trust create an action plan detailing how it will improve its discharge planning, palliative care planning, and communication between staff and patients approaching the end of their life. The Trust was also told to apologise to her family. The Trust has complied.

Mrs S’s son described his mother as someone who was heavily involved in the local community. She sang in two local choirs, played tennis twice a week and volunteered teaching English to female refugees in Chelmsford.

Her son, a 31-year-old chartered surveyor, said, 

I had trust in the NHS, so whenever they told us things, like scans, would happen we believed them. But it was just delay after delay. My mother and I kept asking questions and for updates but never got anywhere and the whole situation was just confusing and frustrating.

 

“There was clearly something wrong with my mum and we had a feeling it could be cancer, but we needed a diagnosis and this took too long to get. After we finally had the diagnosis, we were almost relieved and we expected treatment to start straight away. But again, it took too long to confirm the chemotherapy date. 

 

“Then there were issues with my mum being unsafely discharged from hospital. I was basically just handed a bag of medication with no instructions, advice or support. My mum was incredibly weak during that time and I feel like that week where she came home and I was trying to look after her with no support took 10 years off my life. I still have nightmares about it.

 

“There was nothing that could be done for my mum because her cancer was terminal. But if she had received the care she should have had, then her quality of life would have improved and we may have had more time together.

 

"I’m grateful the Ombudsman provided the answers I couldn’t get from the Trust, I just want the Trust to be held to account. I don’t want another family to go through something like this.

 

"The service failures the Ombudsman has identified should be another driver for the Government to address substantial reforms required in the NHS. Time and time again, we hear politicians go on about reducing wait times but nothing seems to be improving on the ground. I cannot fault the frontline staff but there seems a general consensus around the country that without a substantial shake-up by policymakers, the quality of NHS care will continue to decline.”

Dawn Scrafield, Chief Executive of Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust, said:

We know that waiting for cancer diagnosis and treatment is a worrying time and we offer sincere apologies to Mrs S’s family for the delay in her treatment. Demand has increased, and we are reviewing how we manage the need for more diagnostic services. We have begun an integrated improvement plan, working with our health and care system partners to speed up treatment times and get patients to the right place at the right time.

 

“We have invested in new technologies to help us treat cancer faster and have recently opened new a Community Diagnostic Centre in Thurrock, which is improving access to scans and diagnostic tests.

 

 “Cancer care is one of our key priorities, and we can already see our wait times reducing in some cancers as we deliver extra clinics and theatre scheduling.”

The Public Defender’s Special Report on the Monitoring of Social Housing, Shelters and Similar Institutions of Georgia assesses the actual situation in social housing and shelters in the light of national and international human rights standards.

The report is based on monitoring conducted in 2025 and includes an assessment of 18 social housing facilities, similar institutions and shelters located in 12 municipalities. Within the framework of the report, the institutions were assessed according to the following criteria: safety, suitability, sanitary and hygienic conditions, protection from climatic conditions, sufficiency of living space, access to basic services, service management and legal guarantees for beneficiaries.

The document emphasizes that Georgia still lacks a unified legal and standardized framework for the arrangement of social housing and shelters, which significantly hinders the effective realization of the right to adequate housing.

As a result of the monitoring, a number of serious challenges were identified in the housing sector. Among them, people's long-term living in buildings that pose a threat to health and life, serious violations of sanitary and hygienic norms, iving environment unprotected from climatic conditions, shortage of living space, absence of services or management, etc.

Along with the above-mentioned challenges, the report presents positive examples where the conditions of social housing and shelters generally comply with international standards of adequate housing.

The report provides recommendations to central and local authorities. The report and the recommendations issued will assist the addressees in identifying the problems existing in social housing, shelters and similar institutions in Georgia, finding ways to eliminate them, and addressing the fundamental challenges related to the right to adequate housing.

On 12 and 13 January, a meeting of the European Network of Ombudsmen (ENO) took place in Málaga, Spain. The event was co-organised by the Andalusian Ombudsman and the European Ombudsman. The Human Rights Ombudsman was represented at the meeting by Deputy Ombudsman Miha Horvat and Deputy Ombudsman Dr Dijana Možina Zupanc.

The meeting was opened with addresses by senior representatives of European and host institutions: European Ombudsman Teresa Anjinho, Spanish Ombudsman Ángel Gabilondo, Acting Ombudsman of Andalusia Jesús Maeztu, and the Mayor of Málaga, Francisco de la Torre. In their speeches, they underlined the importance of cooperation within the European Network of Ombudsmen as a key mechanism for strengthening the protection of human rights and for jointly addressing cross-border and systemic challenges within the European Union.

A key element of the programme was the Ideas Fair, which featured parallel discussions on topics including environmental protection, social security for mobile EU citizens, border asylum procedures, the use of EU funds for deinstitutionalization, and food security. Given that these issues often transcend national borders in terms of their scope, complexity, and impact, participants highlighted that the coordinated involvement of two or more national or regional ombudsman institutions may be particularly appropriate in order to achieve greater effectiveness.

A Deputy Ombudsman Dr Dijana Možina Zupanc presented to participants the idea of addressing cross-border environmental issues from a human rights perspective. She stressed that pollution and its consequences do not stop at national borders, nor do the effects of climate change, which are increasingly interfering with people’s rights to health, safety, and a dignified life. She underlined that as climate-related risks intensify, so too must the responsibility of states to take timely action, ensure transparent public information, and engage in effective cross-border cooperation. Drawing on practical examples from the Adriatic region, she demonstrated how coordinated and parallel approaches can lead to stronger joint recommendations and send a clear message: human rights must not remain unprotected simply because the consequences of environmental and climate crises extend beyond national boundaries.

As part of the expert programme, introductory and concluding lectures were delivered by Prof. Dr Mariolina Eliantonio of Maastricht University and Prof. Dr Joana Mendes of the University of Luxembourg. They highlighted the importance of EU composite administrative procedures and effective legal remedies, as well as the role of EU law within national legal systems, particularly in relation to the protection of fundamental rights.

Participants also heard presentations on projects marking the 30th anniversary of the European Network of Ombudsmen, including the Code of Conduct for Ombudsman Institutions in a Period of Accelerated Innovation and the ENO report to the European Parliament. This was followed by reflections on the Network’s contribution to the development of EU legislation. The ENOPEDIA project was also presented—a digital platform designed to compile ombudsmen’s recommendations, decisions, and inquiries relating to EU law.

Im Zuge des Breitbandausbaus versprach die steirische Gemeinde Selzthal allen Haushalten einen Glasfaseranschluss. Nun wurden die Leitungen verlegt, doch nicht bis zum Grundstück von Herrn R., der sich aufgrund dieser Ungleichbehandlung an die Volksanwaltschaft wendete. In der ORF Sendung Bürgeranwalt vom 10.1.2026 betonte Volksanwältin Gaby Schwarz: „Wenn die Gemeinde allen Haushalten einen Glasfaseranschluss verspricht, muss sie das auch halten. Also zurück an den Start!“

Als „absurd und nicht nachvollziehbar“ bezeichnet die Volksanwältin zudem die Begründungen seitens der Gemeinde: „Zuerst wurde behauptet, es handelt sich um eine Privatstraße. Das ist nicht der Fall. Es ist eine öffentliche Gemeindestraße. Schließlich argumentierte die Gemeinde, dass der gesamte Asphalt für die Leitungslegung erneuert werden müsste, was die Kosten sprengen würde. Für mich sind das fragwürdige Ausreden, zumal es in der Nebenstraße sehr wohl möglich war für die Verlegung nur den Bankettstreifen aufzugraben und nicht die gesamte Straße. Es geht nur um 50 Meter, die bis zum Grundstück von Herrn R. ausgebaut werden müssten. Ich appelliere an die Gemeinde und die Ausbaugesellschaft, diesen Fall neu zu prüfen und einzuhalten, was versprochen wurde.“

Kritik an fragwürdigen Umwidmungen geht weiter

Seit sieben Jahren befasst sich die Volksanwaltschaft mit der Beschwerde einer Anrainerin im oberösterreichischen Offenhausen. Denn hinter ihrem Grundstück wurde unter fragwürdigen Bedingungen ein Holzbetrieb auf ehemaligem Grünland gebaut. Einige Bauten entsprachen nicht dem geltenden Flächenwidmungsplan. Die Volksanwaltschaft kritisierte, dass rechtswidrig errichtete Bauten durch nachträgliche Umwidmungen legalisiert wurden.

Nun informierte Volksanwältin Gaby Schwarz über den Status quo: „Ende 2025 bestätigte das Amt der Landesregierung die Kritik der Volksanwaltschaft. Daraufhin erstellte die Marktgemeinde einen neuen Flächenwidmungsplanentwurf, der von der Aufsichtsbehörde allerdings untersagt wurde. Die Marktgemeinde erhob Beschwerde gegen diesen Bescheid beim Landesverwaltungsgericht. Das Ergebnis ist abzuwarten. Wir bleiben an der Sache dran.“