Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what redress is available to people who have not received a response from an NHS Trust to a complaint within the 40 working day deadline.

The NHS Complaint Regulations do not impose working day deadlines on responding to complaints but they do require a complaint to be investigated proportionately to its complexity. A timescale must be agreed with the complainant at an initial meeting, or if the complainant declines this meeting, the National Health Service body must write to the complainant informing them of how long the complaint will take to be investigated.

If a complainant is unhappy with their complaint outcome or a delay in the NHS responding they have the right to approach the Health Service Ombudsman and ask them to investigate. The Ombudsman is independent of the NHS and Government being accountable to Parliament.