Government departments act as sponsors for different public bodies. For example, in 2010-11 Jobcentre Plus was a sponsored body of the Department for Work and Pensions and the UK Border Agency was sponsored by the Home Office. Where we receive a complaint about a public body, we record it under its body name. The top ten public bodies with the most complaints received, complaints resolved by intervention, and complaints accepted for investigation are listed in the following pages.

Also listed are complaints statistics by government department. Each of these figures includes the number of complaints for the bodies that the department sponsors.

Sometimes, the number of complaints about a government department may be greater than the total number of complaints about the bodies it sponsors. This is because we may have received complaints about the government department or a service it provides directly to the public.

A full list of all the departments, and their public bodies, which we received complaints about during the year is available in the appendix.

Complaints can provide an early warning of failures in service delivery. But a small number of complaints received does not necessarily mean a better performance. Some public bodies have more customers and provide more services than others, resulting in more complaints to the Ombudsman. Alternatively, fewer complaints about a public body could mean that there is insufficient information provided to customers about how to complain.