We laid seven investigation reports and 65 decision summaries before the Scottish Parliament today.

Please click here to read the Ombudsman's Overview (PDF) or read it online.

Our response to this Scottish Government Public Bodies Unit consultation emphasises the role that the guide should play in highlighting to board members the importance to good corporate governance of effective complaints handling.  A ‘valuing complaints’ culture - with a pro-active approach to effective resolution, monitoring and learning from complaints - is an essential part of effective governance of our public services.

We laid three investigation reports and 90 decision summaries before the Scottish Parliament today.

Please click here to read the Ombudsman's Overview and visit the Our findings section of our website to view this month's reports.

We have responded to the Scottish Government’s consultation on tax management, restricting our comments to the management of complaints and the relationship between this and dispute resolution.

Our response highlights the consequences of the new Revenue Scotland being brought under our jurisdiction. It would mean that we would be the final stage complaint handler for the Revenue Scotland and, as stated in the consultation, allow for its complaints procedure to be aligned with the established approach to complaints handling in Scotland.

We have responded to the Scottish Government’s consultation on introducing a new housing panel. We support the key aims in the consultation of improving dispute resolution and taking preventative action. In our role as part of the administrative justice landscape, we assess the consultation proposals in terms of how successful they could be in meeting the objectives of enabling individuals to hold public organisations to account, and in dealing with disparities in power and the ability to both access and use information that occurs in any dispute.