Select committee: Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee
Recommendation 12
Third Report - Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman Scrutiny 2022–23
Published 4 Mar 2024
Paragraph 68
Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman Scrutiny 2022-23 All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
We welcome the progress that has been made in developing and rolling out Complaint Standards for the UK Government and the NHS. These Standards have the potential to improve the quality of public services and the handling of complaints. Ensuring that staff know about and act on these Standards is critical to achieving these goals. In its response to this report, the PHSO should set out both the proportion and number of all relevant NHS and UK Government staff who have been trained in its respective Complaint Standards, broken down by department where appropriate, and inform us of its targets for training over the 2023–24 financial year.
From: Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee, Third Report - Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman Scrutiny 2022–23 (HC 198), paragraph 68, 4 March 2024
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 23 May 2024 (deadline 14 May 2024).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The Government states it "remains supportive of the PHSO" but is "not convinced that fundamental reform is a priority at the current time" and would "stop short of mandating" the Complaint Standards.
- On mediation, the Government says NHS England "agrees that mediation can support the resolution of a complaint" and "will work with DHSC and NHS Resolution to encourage the medical profession to engage in mediation".
- On legislative reform of the PHSO, the Government is "not convinced that fundamental reform is a priority at the current time" but is "content to keep this under review" and to look at specific proposals "on a case by case basis".
- It notes that it recently introduced legislation to remove the MP filter for victims of crime and says it "will be important to review the impact of this in the year ahead".
- On the Complaint Standards, it "remains supportive" and says the Cabinet Office should play a role, "assuming that the Standards are shown to be working in practice", but it would "stop short of mandating their use" and prefers to "strongly encourage" take up.