Health Service Commissioner for England (Complaint Handling) Bill

Stephen Pound Excerpts

Friday 27th February 2015 Commons Chamber

We must recognise that we are talking about the last stage in the complaint-handling process here. People who make a complaint have a reasonable expectation that their complaint should be dealt with quickly. As my hon. Friend the Member for Bury North (Mr Nuttall) said, quoting from “A voice for change”, the most recent annual report, which is for 2013-14, of some 4,000 complaints accepted for investigation 67% were concluded within one month and 95% were concluded within six months. So the norm is very much for one month, with the outlying cases taking more than six months. Some 5% are taking more than six months, with only 1% taking more than 12 months.

[Stephen Pound (Ealing North) (Lab)]

I am not sure whether the hon. Gentleman heard the comments by the Minister on the previous group of amendments but I think she addressed that point precisely. There is a complexity within the system that cannot be anticipated, and it would artificially fetter the discretion of the commissioner if an arbitrary time limit were put in place. Does he not agree that there are occasions when the complexity is such that we simply cannot fix the rigid metallic corset of a time limit on it without diminishing the value of the investigation?

[Mr Chope]

With the greatest of respect to the hon. Gentleman, I do not accept that, which is why I tabled the new clause. As he says, the Minister was addressing new clauses 1 and 2, and I would not at this stage anticipate her response to the debate we are now having on new clause 3. If a statutory duty is in place, minds will be concentrated. That means that the ombudsman would, for example, be able to explain to a complainant who it was who was not providing the information that was necessary in a timely fashion and say, “If we don’t get a move on, your complaint will be time-barred because we will dismiss it on the basis that we have a lack of evidence.”