Service Complaints Commissioner

Monday 11th July 2011 Written Statements

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Defence (Mr Andrew Robathan)]

I am pleased to place in the Library of the House the Ministry of Defence (MOD)’s formal response to the Service Complaints Commissioner (SCC)’s third annual report on the fairness, effectiveness and efficiency of the service complaints system.

The MOD and the services accept the SCC’s four new three-year goals, which are challenging but reasonable. The formal response sets out how we propose to address the SCC’s 20 new recommendations, including as part of the work that we are currently doing to review the complaints process as a whole.

Since the complaints process was introduced in January 2008, the MOD and the services have made considerable improvements to their management of complaints, drawing on the SCC’s valuable input as well as on lessons learned from their own experience of operating the system. While recognising that changes should be given the opportunity to bear fruit, we will maintain and build on the progress made to date to deliver a process that is as fair, effective and efficient as possible.