Human Rights Commissioner Helen Watchirs told an annual reports hearing on Wednesday that her office could be amalgamated with the Office of the Public Advocate and the Victims of Crime Commissioner.

The agencies have been battling resourcing issues, in particular, staffing levels that are too low to cope with demand for services.

The ACT government is reviewing the agencies and said on Wednesday no decision had been made about merging the offices.

Last month, Attorney-General Simon Corbell said the government's human rights dollars could be better spent and flagged a restructure of the agencies to address under-staffing. Mr Corbell said one option the government could consider involved the agencies sharing back-of-house resources to free up funds for frontline services.

Dr Watchirs told Wednesday's hearing resources were so constrained her office could not conduct a full audit of Canberra's jail.

She said were it not for staffing issues she would ''absolutely'' have a review to investigate ongoing problems with overcrowding.

''There's not sufficient resources to do a review of the male prison and the overcrowding, it's just the female area which is between 12 and 15 detainees [that is possible],'' she said.

The Human Rights Commissioner said a full audit would cost between $200,000 and $300,000 and would take one to two years with two staff members.

Earlier in the hearing, Dr Watchirs said whether or not a merger took place would likely be known next year, after the review concluded. ''Anything that would result in more services because of efficiencies, I think would be what we would want,'' she said.

''So long as it doesn't mean that our present resources are diluted.''

In her 2012-13 annual report, the territory's public advocate Anita Phillips complained that the caseload for her office was far too high for staff members to cope with.

Ms Phillips wrote that mental health patients and prisoners at Canberra's jail had gone without representation as the ACT's one mental health advocate could not keep up with the demand.

The report showed a 5 per cent increase in the number of clients brought to the public advocate in 2012-13, but a drop in the number of patients given assistance to protect their human rights.

Ms Phillips warned it was ''beyond the capacity'' of the public advocate to meet demand and ''inevitably this will result in a re-evaluation and rationalisation of whom the PA ACT can support''.

Mr Corbell said on Wednesday he had written to Dr Watchirs, Ms Phillips, Victims of Crime Commissioner John Hinchey and the Public Trustee earlier in the year to note the impact the territory's ''challenging financial position'' was having on small agencies.

''I have since met with the office holders to get their views on possibilities to strengthen the delivery of services to the ACT community while meeting fiscal constraints,'' he said.

Mr Corbell said the consultancy firm conducting the review was expected to report to the Justice and Community Safety directorate in mid-December.