In a letter addressed to the Minister for Foreign Affairs of San Marino, the Commissioner raises a number of concerns relating to recent developments concerning the judiciary in San Marino.

Referring to the communications she has received from representatives of the Sammarinese judiciary in recent months concerning allegations of undue interference with the judiciary by the executive and the legislature, the Commissioner recalls a number of important principles and European standards that underpin the rule of law and the enjoyment of human rights. These standards highlight the essential role of judicial councils, which must be firmly established in law and made up in their majority of members of the judiciary elected by their peers. They also include the requirement that objective, pre-established criteria must be applied when allocating cases to individual judges.

The Commissioner considers that the best way of dealing with such allegations and allaying these concerns would be to make full use of the assistance and guidance of specialised Council of Europe bodies, such as the Venice Commission, the Consultative Council of European Judges and the Group of States against Corruption (GRECO).

• Read the Commissioner’s letter to the authorities of San Marino
• Read the reply by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of San Marino

The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman is calling for more to be done to help the adult social care sector capitalise on the valuable learning complaints can bring, in its annual review.

The Annual Review of Adult Social Care Complaints details the trends the Ombudsman has seen in the complaints it has received about adult social care in England during 2019-20.

Over the period the Ombudsman received 3,073 complaints and enquiries, but of those, only 430 were from people who arranged their care privately with independent providers. The disproportionately low number of complaints about independent providers means the independent sector is missing out on an untapped seam of valuable learning and potential improvements to their services.

Michael King, Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, said:

“We’re pleased with how the adult care sector has worked with us to make almost 600 improvements to its services last year, which were agreed in our investigations. This is 7% more than the previous year, and they include things such as policy changes and staff training.

“However, people who fund their own care are still under-represented in the complaints

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Digital conference on the future of the European Ombudsman and cooperation in the European Network of Ombudsmen

26 October 2020

https://enonet.eu/survey/index.php/457224?lang=en

FRA joins a panel discussion on 16 September during the 7th edition of the European Association on Biometrics’ Research Projects Conference.

The discussion at the European Association on Biometrics’ (link is external) Research Projects Conference (link is external) will look at bias, fairness and ethics in biometrics.

FRA will draw on its work on facial recognition technology and artificial intelligence.

The conference runs virtually from 14 to 16 September. It is organised in cooperation with the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre.