Amerdeep Somal has been appointed as the local government and social care ombudsman, taking up the position in January 2024 from the current interim ombudsman Paul Najsarek.

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 has extensive professional experience as the current financial regulators complaints commissioner and the 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.

Somal is the incoming board chair of the Law Society, a role she will take on in January 2024 alongside her position as ombudsman, and is a current board member for the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman.

Somal said: “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.

“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.” 

Najsarek will remain in post as ombudsman and chair of the Commission for Local Administration in England (the board that runs the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman organisation) until January 2024.