Formal investigation
Our investigations are thorough and impartial and end with a report setting out our conclusions.
We aim to complete 90 per cent of investigations within 12 months; in 2010-11, we achieved 88 per cent.
During the year we accepted 403 cases for formal investigation, and reported on 412 (this includes some investigations carried over from the previous year).
Although the total number of cases we received fell year on year, overall the number of cases accepted for investigation rose. We accepted 107 cases about parliamentary bodies for investigation (compared with 52 in 2009-10) and 296 cases about the NHS (compared with 304 in 2009-10).
Complaints about parliamentary bodies
We received the most complaints about the Department for Work and Pensions (2,462 complaints), HM Revenue & Customs (1,671), the Ministry of Justice (924), the Home Office (800) and the Department for Transport (336). Only a small number of these needed to be resolved through formal investigation.
The government departments with the most complaints accepted for investigation are listed in the table below.
| Government department | Number of complaints accepted for formal investigation |
|---|---|
| Ministry of Justice | 35 |
| Including: | |
| Legal Services Commission | 12 |
| HM Courts Service | 9 |
| Office of the Public Guardian | 7 |
| Home Office | 20 |
| Including: | |
| UK Border Agency | 19 |
| Department for Work and Pensions | 18 |
| Including: | |
| Child Support Agency (part of the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission) | 8 |
| Independent Case Examiner | 8 |
| Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs | 13 |
| All the complaints accepted were about the Rural Payments Agency | |
| HM Revenue & Customs | 12 |
| Including: | |
| The Adjudicator’s Office | 5 |
| Valuation Office Agency | 1 |
Complaints about the NHS
We received the most complaints about acute trusts (6,924 complaints), primary care trusts (2,714 complaints) and GPs (2,581 complaints). Only a small number of these required formal investigation.
The type of health bodies with the most number of complaints accepted for investigation are listed below.
| Health bodies | Number of complaints accepted for investigation |
|---|---|
| NHS hospital, specialist and teaching trusts (acute) | 177 |
| General practitioners | 66 |
| Primary care trusts | 54 |
| General dental practitioners | 22 |
| Mental health, social care and learning disability trusts | 20 |
In 2010-11:
- we reported on 93 investigations into complaints about parliamentary bodies and 319 investigations into complaints about the NHS
- we upheld in full or in part 79 per cent of complaints investigated about health bodies, and 78 per cent of complaints investigated about parliamentary bodies
- over 99 per cent of the individual recommendations for remedy we made were accepted by the body complained about
- 88 per cent of people surveyed whose complaint we investigated said they were satisfied or very satisfied with our service.
Putting things right
If we uphold a complaint, we may recommend actions for the public body to take in order to put right what has happened and to learn from its mistakes. This can include an apology, payment to compensate for hardship or injustice, compensation for financial loss and/or other action to put things right. If we decide not to uphold a complaint because there was no service failure, maladministration or injustice, we explain the reasons for our decision.
In 2010-11, we made 902 recommendations for remedy, including 257 recommendations for financial remedy totalling £780,201.72. In addition, £1.5 billion was made available to fund compensation to make good relative losses in the Equitable Life case. There was only one case, involving an NHS dentist, where our recommendations were not accepted. We reported the dentist’s non-compliance to Parliament and the local primary care trust and referred the matter to the General Dental Council.
There were nine applications for judicial review of our decisions during the year. Of those, six were refused permission to proceed at first application, one was given limited permission to proceed and we are awaiting the court’s initial decision on the other two.
