General state of the office Appendix C (pp. 87-101) contains various statistics – only a few key figures will be highlighted below: The number of new cases in 2011 was 4,909 as against 4,994 in 2010. For comparison purposes, developments in the number of new cases have been as follows over the past decade: Number of cases opened in the past ten years 5,000 4,000 3,000 4,298 4,093 4,266 4,110 3,976 2006 2007 3,725 4,229 4,994 4,909 2010 2011 4,379 2,000 1,000 0 2002 2003 2004 2005 2008 2009 The number of cases opened on the basis of a complaint was 4,670 in 2011 as against 4,827 in 2010. 103 cases were opened as a result of the Ombudsman’s option to investigate cases on his own initiative. 23 cases were inspection cases and 75 cases were opened as part of the office’s responsibilities in connection with OPCAT (­see the Annual Report of the Parliamentary Ombudsman, 2009, pp. 18-19, for further in­formation). In addition, 18 cases were opened in relation to the ­Ombudsman’s function as monitoring authority in connection with deportations of foreigners. One own-initiative project was initiated in 2011, and in this connection the ­Ombudsman asked the current Food and Veterinary Complaints Board for 20 cases in 2011. 23