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Statistics

Statistical information about enquiries received, complaints accepted and investigations reported on during 2010-11. This includes a breakdown of complaints about parliamentary and health bodies, and comparisons with last year’s figures.

Figure 1: Enquiries received, closed and in hand
	Restated in hand (01/04/10)	Received	Closed	Total in hand (31/03/11)
Total	1,623	23,422	23,667	1,378

Not properly made: the complainant has not completed local resolution with the body concerned before bringing the matter to the Ombudsman and/or has not submitted their complaint in writing for health complaints, or has not obtained an MP referral for parliamentary complaints.
Premature: the complainant has not attempted to resolve the complaint with the body concerned first, or has not completed the local resolution process.
Discretion: we may decide not to accept a complaint for a variety of reasons, for example, we may feel that the body has acted correctly, reasonably, or, where there have been errors, that the complainant has already been offered appropriate redress. This includes enquiries where we achieved a remedy without the need for an investigation.

Figure 2: Types of closed enquiries
	Out of remit	Not properly made¹	Premature²	Discretion³	Withdrawn	Accepted	Total
Total	3,340	9,242	4,853	4,333	1,496	403	23,667
Percentage	14%	39%	21%	18%	6%	2%	100%

Figure 3: Enquiries accepted for investigation, investigations concluded and in hand
	Restated in hand (01/04/10)	Accepted	Reported on	Discontinued	In hand (31/03/11)
Health	279	296	319	7	249
Parliamentary	60	107	93	0	74
Total	339	403	412	7	323

Figure 4 Top five government departments by number of complaints received (with previous year comparison)
	2010-11	2009-10
Department for Work and Pensions	2,462	3,000
HM Revenue & Customs¹	1,671	1,947
Ministry of Justice	924	931
Home Office	800	952
Department for Transport	336	353
Other¹	1,167	1,360
Total	7,360	8,543

The 2009-10 figures have been restated because the Valuation Office Agency was included in the category ‘Other’ instead of HM Revenue & Customs.

Figure 5 Top five government departments by number of complaints accepted
(with previous year comparison)
	2010-11
Ministry of Justice	35
Home Office	20
Department for Work and Pensions	18
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs	13
HM Revenue & Customs	12
Other	27
Total	125

	2009-10
Department for Work and Pensions	31
Home Office	18
HM Revenue & Customs	8
Ministry of Justice	7
Department for Children, Schools and Families¹	2
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs	2
Department for Transport	2
Other	2
Total	72

Department for Children, Schools and Families is now Department for Education.

Figure 6: Top five government departments by number of complaints reported on
(with previous year comparison)
	2010-11	Fully upheld (%)	Partly upheld (%)	Not upheld (%)
Department for Work and Pensions	36	58%	14%	28%
Home Office	26	62%	31%	8%
Ministry of Justice	24	50%	29%	21%
HM Revenue & Customs	17	24%	35%	41%
Department for Education	9	78%	11%	11%
Other	8	50%	38%	12%
Total	120	53%	25%	22%

1 The 2009-10 figures have been restated because the Valuation Office Agency was included in the category ‘Other’ instead of HM Revenue & Customs.

	2009-10	Fully upheld (%)	Partly upheld (%)	Not upheld (%)
Department for Work and Pensions	69	38%	29%	33%
Home Office	53	55%	42%	4%
Ministry of Justice	28	57%	29%	14%
HM Revenue & Customs1	27	52%	26%	22%
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs	4	75%	0%	25%
Other1	10	50%	30%	20%
Total	191	49%	31%	20%

In some cases, the percentages do not add up to 100 per cent due to rounding.

Figure 7 Health complaints received by type of body (with previous year comparison)
	2010-11	2009-10
NHS hospital, specialist and teaching trusts (acute)	6,924	6,304
Primary care trusts	2,714	2,411
General practitioners	2,581	2,419
Mental health, social care and learning disability trusts	1,356	1,393
General dental practitioners	707	659
Strategic health authority	240	300
Ambulance trusts	226	216
Pharmacies	97	62
Care trusts	88	31
Special health authorities¹	79	85
Healthcare Commission	36	531
Opticians	18	18
Total	15,066	14,429

Special health authorities includes 23 complaints about NHS Direct.

Figure 8 Health complaints accepted by type of body (with previous year comparison)
	2010-11	2009-10
NHS hospital, specialist and teaching trusts (acute)	177	195
General practitioners	66	57
Primary care trusts	54	30
General dental practitioners	22	9
Mental health, social care and learning disability trusts	20	26
Strategic health authorities	6	16
Ambulance trusts	4	12
Care trusts	2	0
Special health authorities	0	0
Opticians	0	0
Healthcare Commission	0	0
Pharmacies	0	1
Total	351	346

Figure 9: Health complaints reported on by type of body (with previous year comparison)
	2010-11	Fully upheld (%)	Partly upheld (%)	Not upheld (%)
NHS hospital, specialist and teaching trusts (acute)	211	64%	18%	18%
General practitioners	48	75%	13%	13%
Primary care trusts	30	60%	3%	37%
Mental health, social care and learning disability trusts	22	50%	9%	41%
Strategic health authorities	15	80%	7%	13%
Ambulance trusts	12	42%	42%	17%
General dental practitioners	10	60%	0%	40%
Healthcare Commission	1	100%	0%	0%
Total	349	64%	15%	21%

In some cases, the percentages do not add up to 100 per cent due to rounding.

	2009-10	Fully upheld (%)	Partly upheld (%)	Not upheld (%)
NHS hospital, specialist and teaching trusts (acute)	94	44%	18%	38%
General practitioners	27	41%	15%	44%
Healthcare Commission	25	60%	20%	20%
Mental health, social care and learning disability trusts	12	42%	8%	50%
Primary care trusts	11	18%	36%	45%
General dental practitioners	5	40%	40%	20%
Strategic health authorities	4	75%	0%	25%
Ambulance trusts	1	100%	0%	0%
Special health authorities	1	0%	0%	100%
Total	180	44%	18%	37%

In some cases, the percentages do not add up to 100 per cent due to rounding.

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