Our Findings

When we investigate a complaint, we usually report our findings and conclusions in what we call a decision letter. In a few cases that meet our criteria for full investigation and publication, we lay the full report of the investigation before the Scottish Parliament and put it on our website.

Decision letters
We usually send a decision letter if:

- the organisation accept there were failings, apologise and take action to prevent the problem from happening again

- from the evidence, it appears that the organisation did not do anything wrong (to use formal language, there is no evidence of 'maladministration or service failure' by the organisation)

- the Ombudsman has decided that the substance of the complaint and our decision on it do not raise public interest considerations.

Once we've made the decision on a case, we send the letter to the person who made the complaint and the organisation they complained about. In June 2011, we started to lay a report of decision letters before the Parliament and put them on our website.

To read our decision reports, click here.

Investigation reports
We send investigation reports to the complainant and the organisation complained about and we report them in full to the Parliament. The Ombudsman decides whether an investigation should be reported to the Parliament. He will do this if he considers that the matter is in the public interest. This can include:

- significant personal injustice complaints
- systemic failure cases
- precedent and test cases
- cases where there has been significant failure in the local complaints procedure.

To read our investigation reports, click here. 

Ombudsman's Commentaries
The Ombudsman provides a regular Commentary to MSPs, the Scottish Government and other public service providers. This summarises the findings from complaints that he considers to be significant. It draws attention to particular issues, and highlights recurring themes and trends so that lessons can be learned and improvements made.

To read our Commentaries, click here.
To find our more about our process, click here.