Complaints from black, minority ethnic (BME) and lesbian gay bisexual and transgender (LGBT) customers

Reference 238971 | November 2015

I am writing in response to your Freedom of Information request dated 3 November 2015 in which you asked for information held by PHSO about protected characteristics, specifically about the number of Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) and Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) customers accessing our complaints service.

As explained in my response to you on 2 October 2015, our policies, procedures and guidance are implemented in line with the Equality Act 2010 since came into force on 1 October 2010.

We would not make a distinction of a customer’s age, marriage or civil partnership status, race, religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation when they access our complaints service. However we do take into account the customer’s gender to register their complaint, and any disabilities they may have in case of any reasonable adjustments they require. For reference I attach my last response to you regarding the reasonable adjustments we make for our customers.

In line with the Freedom of Information Act 2000 I can confirm we do hold some BME related data falling within the scope of your request, however we do not data regarding sexual orientation.

Data from PHSO customer satisfaction survey

Please find enclosed at Annex A data extracted from our customer satisfaction survey for the last three years. Whilst we collect demographic data on ethnicity, I can confirm we do not collect data on our customers’ sexual orientation in this survey.

The PHSO customer satisfaction survey is a telephone survey undertaken on our behalf by an external research firm on a representative sample of our customers. Two surveys are undertaken – one for customers whose case closed at enquiry stage and one for customers who case closed at investigation stage. In terms of accessing our service, the survey asks broad questions such as how easy people found it to find out about us, and how easy the complaints process was to understand, the three tables on page two set that data.

When viewing all the tables of data, please take into account that there are many other significant differences between BME and non-BME customers in other classifications such as age, and complaint type etc. These other classifications drive significant differences in survey response, and therefore to look at these figures in isolation would be misleading.

You can access details about our 2013/14 customer satisfaction survey on our website

And our research reports

2014 Complain for Change campaign

In 2014 we carried out a “Complain for Change” ombudsman awareness campaign which targeted “hard to reach groups” specifically low income households, people with learning disabilities and South Asian and Muslim Women (two BME groups). This was following a 2013 PHSO awareness research survey which identified awareness of the Parliamentary Ombudsman had been steadily declining over the past 10 years – from 37% in 2003 to 28% in 2013, although the number of enquiries has risen. Overall awareness of the Health Service Ombudsman had remained relatively static but had gradually decreased among men from 44% in 2003 to 36% in 2013. Awareness of the Parliamentary Ombudsman among people from hard-to-reach groups was particularly low – at 14% for 18-24 year olds, 15% Black and minority ethnic (BME) groups and 18% in lower social class bands (D/E) in 2013. If you would like to read more about the awareness campaign, please visit our complain for change page.

South Asian and Muslim Women 

I hope the information is helpful.