45 When a motorist appealed a parking fine, the City of Copenhagen sent him a photograph of the car taken by the parking warden to document that the parking ticket had not been displayed in the windscreen. However, the motorist ar­gued that the night-time photograph proved nothing due to the use of flash, reflections and shadows. The Ombudsman rejected the case as local authorities’ use of photo documentation is warranted by an order made by the Supreme Court in 2010. Partly for this reason, the Ombudsman found it more appropriate to leave it to the courts to decide how good the quality of such photographs must be. If a child is ill for a long time and cannot take part in school tuition, it may be granted sickness tuition. The offer is adapted to the individual child. For instance, the tuition may take place in the child’s home or at a hospital. However, a severely arthritic girl was refused sickness tuition because she was already re­ceiv­ ing special needs tuition for dyslexia. The Ombudsman wanted to know the connection between the two and therefore asked the local authority for a statement. In its statement, the local authority wrote that in principle it agreed with the Ombudsman that dyslexia tuition does not replace sickness tuition. The Ombudsman closed the case by recommending that the local author­ity, in collaboration with the school and with the involvement of the girl’s parents, as soon as possible prepare an individually planned tuition programme for the girl, consisting of sickness tuition as well as dyslexia tuition. The local authority subsequently ­informed the Ombudsman that the girl would now receive sickness tuition. The Arthritis Association, which helped lodge the complaint with the Ombudsman, wrote that the rules on sickness tuition were very old-fashioned and out of step with reality. The Ombudsman forwarded the Association’s letter to the then Ministry of Education and asked to be informed how the Ministry intended to deal with the matter. May a local authority forbid a citizen to record his ­conversations with its employees? This question was submitted to the Ombudsman, who answered that pursuant to the Ombudsman Act, he cannot reply to general questions, but only consider complaints. However, he enclosed a printout of an earlier statement dealing with the same issue. The statement says that authorities have the right to forbid recordings unless a citizen has special needs which necessitate a recording. The Ombudsman is often approached by citizens with general questions, requests for advice or a need of legal aid. According to the Ombudsman Act, it is not the Ombudsman’s job to provide such help. The Ombudsman’s task is to investigate whether the authorities have committed errors in connection with their work.

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