Sometimes when people bring a complaint to us it’s not ready for us to investigate. We call these premature complaints. When this happens, the person complaining to us needs to go back to the organisation they complained about or their MP.
But only about 27% of complainants return to us. We wanted to find out why. We commissioned Opinion Research Services (ORS) to find out what happens when complainants come to us too soon and why they do not return to us with their complaint. They conducted an online survey with more than 1,000 complainants along with 25 in-depth interviews.
Key findings
Making a complaint
Under half of complainants found it easy to make their complaint. Those who spoke English as a second language or were limited by a long-term health condition were more likely to find the process difficult.
In particular, some complainants struggled with using the complaint form or found the language used to be too complex. Some also found that our response times were too slow.
The most common barrier parliamentary complainants faced was requirement to get MP approval before bringing a complaint to us (also known as the MP filter). This was found to be time consuming, challenging and sometimes impossible.
Understanding our role and the complaint process
Only around a third of premature complainants agreed that we clearly explained why their complaint was not ready to investigate. Around half disagreed that we gave them clear advice on what to do next with their complaint.
The part of the process that complainants were uncertain about was what to do if the organisation being complained about did not respond to them. Many said they did not know when to return to us in this scenario.
What happens after we say a complaint isn’t ready?
For both parliamentary and health complainants, around three in ten did not take further action with their complaint after we told them it was premature. Of those that did return to the organisation their complaint was about, 15% had their complaint resolved by the organisation and did not need to return to us.
The most common reason complainants did not return to us was because they did not think it would make a difference.
What next?
The findings from our research highlight important barriers that complainants experience when they come to us too soon with their complaint. We’re committed to listening to this feedback to make improvements to our service.
We have shared the findings from this research across our organisation and will look at how we can make the process of making a complaint clearer, quicker and more accessible for everyone.
To find out more, download our report on complaints that come to us too early.
