THE OMBUDSMAN INSTITUTION IN 2017 Many cases dealt with difficult legal questions and were solved quite undramatically. This could be, for instance, interpretation of the Environmental Information Act (Case Nos. 2017-28 and 2017-29), restrictions on public employees accepting invitations to cultural events (Case No. 2017-2) and the legal basis for NemID, the digital signature that is used as a single login for public websites, online banking and many other websites and services in Denmark (Case No. 2017-19). However, also in 2017 there were cases involving such grave errors that the criticism had to be severe – for instance the case of the forced separation of young asylum-seeking couples (Case No. 2017-10) where the much talkedabout instruction of 10 February 2016 by the Minister for Immigration and Integration had to be characterised as ‘illegal’ and the collective procedure as ‘very hazardous relative to the Ministry’s basic duty of ensuring legal administration of the field’. But also here, the important thing for the future was to ensure that the matter was rectified. Fortunately, it was. Enjoy your read. Jørgen Steen Sørensen 9