UK | Annual Report from the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman

The Scottish Public Services Ombudsman (SPSO) is pleased to present its 2021-22 Annual Report. Since Ombudsman Rosemary Agnew took up office in 2017, her team has, year on year, taken on new functions and duties and had to cope with unprecedented change and challenges; many of which the office would have faced irrespective of COVID-19.  

The SPSO started 2021-22 in the knowledge it had high workloads and faced capacity and resourcing challenges. Despite uncertainty about the ongoing impact of COVID-19, on the team and Scottish public services, the office was, and remains, optimistic. 

The SPSO set itself an ambitious business plan, driven by its values and strategic aims and was successful in delivering many of these objectives. The 2021-22 performance report features the SPSO’s performance across all its functions and the important significant achievements during 2021-22.  Some highlights include:

• 3,665 public service complaints received and 3,492 closed
  
  
• of all investigated public service complaints the SPSO upheld 63%
  
  
• made 511 recommendations to public bodies, 51% being about learning and improvement
  
  
• the office’s Scottish Welfare Fund independent review service observed a 36.7% increase in review applications and handled 26.6% more than the previous year
  
  
• the SPSO’s Independent National Whistleblowing Officer function completed its first year of service, considering 107 whistleblowing enquiries and cases
  
  
• the office successfully launched three project work streams to review its own organizational learning and recommend improvements on future working arrangements, intelligence and learning from casework and internal communications.

“Driven by our values, we are committed to delivering the best service we can with the resources we have.  Reducing the number of unallocated public service complaints, shortening the time taken to decide complaints, and increasing stakeholder engagement are top priorities for 2022-23,” said Ombudsman Agnew.

The Annual Report can be accessed in the download section below. For more detailed statistical information about public service complaints please visit the SPSO’s website.

Source: Office of the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman (SPSO), UK