7 Jørgen Steen Sørensen Parliamentary Ombudsman In the autumn of 2017, we launched on our website, www.ombudsmanden.dk, our Guide for Authorities, where we provide guidance to public authorities on administrative law issues of practical importance. The Guide reflects our desire to be forward-looking and preventative in our contact with public authorities – for the benefit of citizens’ legal rights. Also in the individual cases we investigate, our focus should be on being constructive. This influences, among other things, the way we communicate with public authorities. According to the Ombudsman Act, the Ombudsman may ‘express criticism, make recommendations and otherwise state his views of a case’. And historically – apart from stating his views and making recommendations in the case if need be – the Ombudsman has often stated definite criticism of public au­ tho­rities, for instance by calling their actions ‘regrettable’, ‘a matter for criticism’, ‘unacceptable’ or the like. It is an important question of institutional policy what line we want to follow in regard to the ‘rhetoric of criticism’. Therefore, we have been working continuously on this question. In the words of the Ombudsman Act, the Ombudsman is to assess whether public authorities ‘act in contravention of applicable law or otherwise commit errors or derelictions’. However, the Ombudsman’s objective per se can never be to find errors or derelictions. It must be to provide solutions. To contribute to public authorities knowing what they must do differently next time.