Of those whose complaint we investigated, 82% were satisfied with our service.

For most people coming to us, our decision is the  last opportunity to get things put right. We have built several checks and balances into our processes to ensure  that our decisions are fair and robust. We give serious consideration to any complaints raised by our customers  about our decisions and we seek to use the learning from these to improve our  performance.  In 2011-12 we found that  0.4% of our decisions needed to be looked at again or required further  explanation.

We resolve complaints as quickly as possible and  met five of the six customer service standards we set ourselves.

Cases  that had been with us for 12 months or more

In  2011-12 we worked hard to resolve some of our toughest, most complicated, and  longstanding complaints.  By the end of  the year we had only 20 cases in hand that had been with us for 12 months or  more.

Clearing  these older cases meant we fell short of concluding 90% of investigations  within 12 months.  Our performance was 79%.  It also resulted in an increase in the  average length of time it took to close an investigation from 323 to 357 days.  However, of the 332 investigations in hand as at 31 March 2012 the average age  was 152 days.

Meeting our customer service standards

Our information promise

We want to share the learning from complaints and tell our customers and stakeholders more about us, our work and our decisions. Equally, we want to reassure those who send us personal, sensitive and sometimes confidential information that we will safeguard it and will handle it lawfully and appropriately. To meet this challenge, we developed and tested our information promise; a clear statement that we value all the information entrusted to us, will put appropriate resources in place to look after it and will report on how we are doing.