Recommendation 2

We welcome the fact that the PHSO has worked hard to reduce the backlog of cases created by the COVID-19 pandemic and met its target for making initial decisions about cases within seven days. However, we remain concerned by the fact that the PHSO has missed its targets on deciding cases subject to further consideration. The PHSO attributed this to the lag effect of closing cases that had been in the queue for a long time and expect that the time taken to complete further consideration will drop dramatically once the backlog has been cleared. In order to clarify how far the work being undertaken to clear the backlog of cases is the main cause of the length of time taken to resolve cases subject to further consideration, the PHSO should find a way to present the information on the time involved in case resolution by giving separate figures for those cases which are part of the COVID-19 backlog and those others which have been received since the end of the pandemic.