Complaints procedure, auditing and timescales: FOI release

FOI reference: FOI/17/02924
Date received: 21 November 2017
Date responded: 4 December 2017

Information requested

Please indicate whether complaints procedure is audited externally and whether the inspection investigates whether all complaints have been answered within the time set.

Response

The answer to your question is as follows. The Complaints system is not systematically audited, although there is nothing to stop our auditors from deciding to do so. Any investigation can be reviewed by the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman (SPSO) if the complainant is not satisfied with our response. We monitor our performance against the targets set, but these are targets, and it is frequently not possible, and sometimes would not be fair to the complainant, to respond within the times set out in the Complaints Handling Procedure.

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