SPSO Individual Decisions

C complained that the Scottish Government failed to deal with their complaint over an extended period. C said they repeatedly had to chase the Scottish Government for a response. When C first approached this office, they had not completed the Scottish Government's complaints procedure. Although we received assurances from the Scottish Government that the case was being progressed, C repeatedly informed us that they were not receiving updates, or responses to their correspondence. We chose to exercise our discretion and proceed to an investigation, even though C had not completed the Scottish Government's complaints procedure. We found that the Scottish Government had failed to handle C's complaint in line with their published complaints procedure. They had not complied with the time scales set out in their complaints handling procedure, records had not been kept appropriately and C had not been kept informed of developments, nor had the Scottish Government responded to correspondence. We upheld C's complaint, but because of a similar case, concluded just before theirs, further recommendations were not made to the Scottish Government who have since taken significant steps to improve their complaint handling. Related reading View Decision Report 201803981 as a PDF (24.26 KB) Updated: May 19, 2021

Ms C complained that the Scottish Government failed to respond to her complaint within a reasonable timeframe. Ms C came to us after waiting a number of months for a response to her complaint. We contacted the Scottish Government five times over the course of four months to request an update on Ms C's complaint. When they failed to provide Ms C with a response within the timeframe we set, we accepted a complaint from Ms C about the Scottish Government's handling of her complaint. During the course of our investigation, the Scottish Government replied to Ms C's complaint. We found that they had failed to refer Ms C to us at the the end of their complaints process and failed to provide us with information we requested by the deadline set. We considered that the Scottish Government failed to respond to Ms C's complaint within a reasonable timeframe and upheld her complaint.