Inspections
According to Section 18 of the Danish Ombudsman Act, the Parliamentary Ombudsman may inspect any public institution, company or place of employment which falls under his jurisdiction.
Approximately 25−30 inspections are carried out annually.
From the time the office opened in 1955 and till now, more than 500 inspections have been carried out of which 350 have been carried out since the coming into force of the present Ombudsman Act on 1 January 1997. In connection with the passing of this amendment of the act it was a prerequisite that the inspection activities were significantly extended.
Practically all inspections concern places where citizens are staying more or less involuntarily, meaning:
- State prisons
- County gaols / remand centres
- Prison and Probation Service hostels
- Secure institutions for juvenile offenders / substitutions of custody
- Psychiatric hospitals
- Detentions
- Police waiting rooms
- Social and psychiatric care homes
- Social residential care homes for children and juveniles
The Danish Parliament (Folketinget) has decided or stipulated that the Parliamentary Ombudsman will carry out regular inspections of such places. In addition, inspections of certain other institutions are also carried out.
In pursuit of the Ombudsman’s task of supervising the field of non-discrimination of the disabled, inspections are undertaken of public buildings with particular regard to acces-sibility for the disabled.
Inspections of local authorities and other public bodies are also carried out.
The inspection activity is a regular obligation. Some of the institutions already inspected will therefore be inspected again later on, at which time the new inspection will, of course, be based on the previous inspection. All institutions within the purview of the Prisons and Probation Service have been inspected after 1 January 1997, and a number of those institutions have been inspected for the second time.