The Public Services Ombudsman for Wales needs a budget increase to keep up with the number of complaints it receives each year, a Senedd committee has heard.

Ombudsman Michelle Morris warned her office has “reached capacity” with staff having to queue new cases to manage the workload.

The Ombudsman received a record 3,500 formal complaints last year – a 10 per cent increase.

Appearing before the finance committee on 16 October, Ms Morris said: "We felt we were operating very close to capacity with the case numbers we experienced the year before and given the increases we've now seen last year on top of that, we really do feel that we've reached capacity with our current workforce."

The ombudsman has requested a 5.4 per cent budget increase, with three per cent covering pay and price pressures – and the remaining 2.4 per cent needed to cope with increases in demand.

Katrin Shaw, the ombudsman’s casework and legal director, warned of a “constant juggling act” to manage demand.

“We are fully stretched,” she said.

“As soon as we move resources to assist in one area, we are so stretched that we start seeing issues in another."

In 2019, the office was given powers to carry out wider “own-initiative” investigations.

But her office warned such proactive investigations could be jeopardised if the budget is hit by a failure to pass the Welsh Government's annual spending plans.

If not passed by the start of the financial year in April, funding for the ombudsman’s office would revert to 75 per cent of last year’s budget – rising to 95 per cent if not agreed by the end of July.

Finance director Heather Beynon warned of job losses in such a scenario, saying the office would not be able to absorb redundancy costs and would need to request further funding.