24 | Jakob is Mark’s social education worker. Mark is 16 years old – one of Denmark’s finest kayakers. The town of Maribo. 18/03210 ‘A daycare provider is a person who looks after children in the person’s private home’, a citizen wrote to the Ombudsman. The citizen was dissatis­ fied with an amendment to the Daycare Facilities Act which meant that she was no longer allowed to call her childcare services ‘daycare’ but had to use the term ‘private childminding arrangement’ in public contexts. The Ombudsman wrote to the citizen that he was not able to help her as he cannot consider complaints about legislation. The Ombudsman turns down cases outside his jurisdiction. In 2018, 484 cases were rejected on those grounds. 18/02752 The Department of Prisons and Probation informed the Ombudsman that an inmate was to be excluded from association, meaning that he was to be placed in solitary confinement, for more than three months. The Department explained that the Court had decided that the inmate should undergo a psychiatric examination but there was no psychiatric ward capacity. Due to the inmate’s aggressive behaviour, the Prison and Probation Service saw no other way than to place him temporarily in another institution and to continue his solitary confinement. After approx. one week, the Department informed the Ombudsman that the psychiatric ward could now accommodate the inmate. Seeing that the exclusion from association thereby ended, the Ombudsman took no further action in the matter. According to an agreement with the Depart­ ment of Prisons and Probation, the Ombudsman is informed of extended exclusions from asso­ ciation (longer than three months) of inmates in the Prison and Probation Service institutions. This means that the Ombudsman has the pos­ sibility of monitoring the conditions of inmates who are excluded for longer periods of time – for example by visiting the institution. During a visit to Tunis, Ombudsman staff participated in meetings with the Tunisian human rights commission which, among other things, considers individual complaints about violation of human rights. The Danish Ombudsman’s expertise was a focal point for the commission, and as a result of the journey, the Ombudsman joined a collaboration with the commission which had already been initiated by the Danish Institute for Human Rights. As far as the Ombudsman was concerned, the collaboration would focus on complaint processing and understanding the Tunisian human rights commission’s mandate. Since the opening of the Parliamentary Om­ budsman institution in 1955, the Ombudsman has worked at an international level – often in collaboration with ombudsman institutions abroad. However, collaboration can also be established with others who work with, for in­ stance, complaint processing or the monitoring of institutions for weak or vulnerable citizens. Often, contact is established via Danish embas­ sies or joint collaborators such as the Danish Institute for Human Rights. 18/00407 A lawyer complained because the Tax Appeals Agency had refused to give advance assurance to one of his clients that the Agency would re-open a case in which his client was liable for payment of a vehicle registration fee. The lawyer pointed out that his client’s case was one of many cases about the same matter, and that he had brought a similar case before the courts on behalf of another client. The lawyer found that the Tax Appeals Agency should give advance assurance to reassess the case, which was now being processed at the Ombudsman institution, if he succeeded in the case that was brought before the courts. When the Ombudsman asked the Tax Appeals Agency for an elaboration of the grounds for the refusal, the Agency changed its view. In spite of everything, the client was now offered an advance re-opening assurance. Subsequently, the lawyer withdrew the complaint, and the Ombudsman concluded the case. Not often is a complaint withdrawn. But when it happens, it might be because the complainant has won the argument with the authority in the meantime.