Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the right hon. Member for Carshalton and Wallington, representing the House of Commons Commission, how many complaints under the Independent Complaints and Grievance Scheme which were not previously covered by the scheme have been lodged since the resolution of the House on 17 July 2019.

The resolution of the House of 17 July 2019 endorsed the report of the House of Commons Commission entitled Extending the Independent Complaints and Grievance Scheme and approved steps to make the changes necessary to extend the scheme. Paragraph 6 of that report stated that subject to approval by the House, implementation work would take place over the summer, including the recruitment of additional expert independent investigators, with the intention of opening up the Scheme to non-recent cases from autumn this year.

Complainants with non-recent cases and former members of the parliamentary community, not previously covered by the scheme, will have access to the scheme from Monday 21 October 2019.