Sir Michael Sydney Buckley (born 20 June 1939) is an English retired civil servant who was Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration and Health Service Commissioner for England, Scotland and Wales (Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman) between 1997 and 2002. Buckley was born in 1939 and educated at Eltham College and Christ Church, Oxford where he studied Mods and Greats. In 1962, Buckley joined the Treasury as an Assistant Principal. He was the Assistant Private Secretary to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, James Callaghan between 1965-66. He was then a Principal at the Treasury until 1968, when he moved to the Civil Service Department, where he stayed until 1971. Buckley moved back to the Treasury as Principal and then as Assistant Secretary between 1974-77. He was at the Department of Industry between 1977-80 and then moved back to the Treasury yet again as an Assistant Secretary. In 1982 Buckley became the Under Secretary of the Cabinet Office before becoming the head of the electricity and coal divisions at the Department of Energy in 1985. In 1989 Buckley became the principal establishment and finance officer at the Department, where he served until 1991. Buckley was Chairman of Dartford and Gravesham NHS Trust between 1995-96. Ombudsman Buckley was appointed as Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman to succeed Sir William Reid and took up the post in January 1997. As a priority, Buckley sought to eliminate the backlog of casework which had accumulated without affecting the quality of investigations undertaken by the Office. He targeted additional staff and changes in working methods and management as means of speeding up investigation throughput times. Staff would only undertake work that would add value to the resolution of a complaint. It was no longer to be assumed that all aspects of every complaint were to be exhaustively examined. Delegation within the Office also went much deeper so that decisions were made at the lowest appropriate level. Other additions to Office practice included targets, performance appraisals for staff, reviews of performance against targets and time recording. Screening and investigation staff were now to be employed on permanent contracts instead of the Office relying on those on short-term contracts and secondments. As a consequence of these initiatives, the average throughput time for cases fell from 91 weeks in 1998-99 to just 44 weeks in 1999–2000. Investigations backlogs were also eliminated. These improvements were being achieved against a backdrop of consistently