Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the experience of constituents in West Dorset using the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman to resolve complaints against public bodies.

The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) is an independent body, accountable to Parliament. The work and performance of the PHSO is scrutinised by the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee.

Where complainants in West Dorset, as well as all regions of the country, are dissatisfied with decisions made by the PHSO they are entitled to understand how those decisions were reached. The PHSO’s Service Charter includes the commitment to explain its decisions and recommendations and how it reached them.