Today, the Defensor del Pueblo, Soledad Becerril, turned in the 2015 Annual Report to the President of the Congress of Deputies, Patxi López, and to the President of the Senate, Pío García Escudero.
The Annual Report details the activity of the institution in a year in which operational changes have been made in order to establish a better relationship with citizens. With the introduction of information technologies, the effectiveness of the institution has been increased.
The Defensor has experienced a digital transformation culminating in a new website, which means a more simple and direct way of communicating with citizens.
The website has facilitated the presentation of complaints in order to make it easier to follow those complaints in a personalized and private manner. One can consult weekly the number of complaints received by the institution, as well as ex officio actions initiated and recommendations and suggestions that have been issued. Moreover, the website reports on administrations that hinder the work of the Defensor and, in the section on transparency, all budgetary data of the institution is available.
The Defensor also informs citizens of the time taken by the institution in responding to their complaints, which has continued to improve throughout 2015. It takes an average of 28.99 days to issue the first response, and 47.32 days to issue a resolution after receiving a response from the relevant administration.
Data
During her appearance in the Congress, the Defensor took stock of the work realized by the institution over the past year and highlighted some of the most relevant issues.
In 2015, the Defensor issued 706 recommendations, 613 suggestions and 184 reminders of legal obligation. Moreover, the institution received 17,822 written complaints, 123 written appeals of unconstitutionality and recourse, and initiated 522 ex officio actions.
The issues of greatest concern to citizens have been those related to:
1. Administration of Justice: Tardiness and delays, nationality
2. Internal Matters: Electoral System (voting by mail and from abroad) and Road Safety (Driving schools, there are more than 400 complaints for protection of proctors from students that fail the exam)
3. Economic Activity: Banks and Services (electricity and gas)
4. Health: Specialized attention (waiting lists, family planning)
5. Employment: Benefits (for disabilities, pensions, unemployment benefits, reintegration income, refunds for wrongful charges)
Relevant Issues
2015 has seen an improvement in the shortcomings and needs of citizens, but the marks left by the various economic crises are still visible. The Defensor del Pueblo has ensured that the most attention possible be paid to those who have seen their fundamental rights affected.
In May, the institution presented the study titled “Listening to the child, the victim and the witness,” and many of the recommendations contained in that study have been accepted.
The Defensor celebrated the creation of a simple risk classification system for financial products, the necessity of which the Defensor has argued for years. The Order ECC/2316/2015 relating to the obligation to classify and report of financial products, published in the Official State Bulletin in November, obliges financial entities to notify their clients of the risk of the financial products that they offer through a colour coding system.
The Second Chance Act approved in 2015 used the criteria of the Defensor, who had noted the need of establishing an independent insolvency procedure for individuals and consumers who were over indebted in good faith. The new legislation introduces for the first time the legal concept of a debtor in good faith—a concept accepted by other legal systems—so that debtors affected by unforeseen circumstances outside of their control can access reasonable solutions, always provided they meet certain conditions.
In 2015, actions to integrate the Social Housing Fund (SHF) into the Company for the Management of Assets proceeding from Restructuring of the Banking System continued. The SHF was created in 2013 to provide housing solutions for families in a situation of special vulnerability. It has accelerated its distribution of apartments after putting into effect the Defensor del Pueblo’s suggestion that they give greater publicity to the offers and possibilities of the fund.
The institution has recommended educational administrations take the regulatory and budgetary steps necessary to assure that attention paid to persons with disabilities is in accordance with the principles of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. These recommendations have been accepted in order to provide equal opportunity to those persons with disabilities in the educational system.
On the matter of migration, the Defensora del Pueblo has demonstrated special concern for the refugee crisis. As such, she has requested reinforcing the attention paid to these individuals in order to resolve their situation as soon as possible and assure their integration.
In order to better understand the situation of these people—in addition to regular visits to Temporary Holding Centres—the Defensora has visited the refugee camp in Zaatari, near Amann, and written a document, distributed to the government, noting her impressions of the national and international aid provided in the camp, as well as the shortcomings and needs she observed.
Terrorist acts which have left victims throughout the world have driven the institution to firmly condemn all acts of terror and declare itself permanently on the side of the victim. As such, the institution has requested that the voice of victims be heard in international organizations, and that through Spain’s actions abroad we may all come to know the pain and harm produced by terrorism.
The Defensor has also opposed the position of states that refuse to extradite terrorists that ought to be tried in Spain, where they committed their crimes, and that doubt the guarantees of the Rule of Law in Spain.
At present, the institution is working on a study concerning the “Rights of the Victims of the Terrorist Organization ETA”.
The Secretary of the Treasury accepted a recommendation that developable land that does not have the characteristics of urban plots (access to water, electricity, sidewalks…) pay taxes as rural land. As a consequence of this recommendation, the Consolidated Text of the Law of Real Estate Registry and the Land Act has been modified. This has limited the category of land considered developable to those plots that have the services proper to an urban area.
The institution has also formulated recommendations to make the conditions of repaying tax debts more flexible for those that want to pay but are unable. Moreover, it has worked with the Tax Office to make the language of its communications and resolutions more accessible.
On the matter of city planning, the City Government of Madrid has accepted a recommendation to modify urban regulations and thus facilitate energy improvement and the acoustic protection of buildings.
Moreover, recommendations to guarantee supplying food to children during school breaks and promote providing and reusing textbooks free-of-charge (issued to the Ministry of Education and Autonomous Communities) have been highly accepted.
At the beginning of 2016, Castilla-La Mancha and the Community of Madrid have notified this institution that they will extend the free and universal access to health care to immigrants in irregular situations.
The Secretary of Public Administrations has agreed to include in the Basic Statute of Employment permission for the hospitalization and surgery without hospitalization of family members and relatives that require rest at home. The enforcement of the recommendation is pending the approval of the Autonomous Communities following the Commission for Coordination of Public Employment.
The Law of the protection of infancy, approved in 2015, incorporated recommendations made by the Defensor in defence of the children of victims of gender violence and awarded priority of assignment to family of the child at risk, just as the institution requested.
The Royal Academy of the Spanish Language agreed to incorporate the abbreviations for “negative” and/or “disrespectful” to their definitions “trickery” and “trickster” for the words “gypsyness” and “gypsy,” just as the Defensor had recommended.
Case Studies
In 2015 the institution published and prevented five case studies:
– “Hospital emergencies in the National Healthcare System: rights and guarantees of patients”
– “Listening to the child, the victim and the witness”
– “The situation of Spanish prisoners abroad”
– “The security and accessibility of infant play areas”
– “Processing of zoning permits: procedures and duration of processes”
