Easter closure

Please note that we will be closed from 5pm Thursday 28 March until Tuesday 2 April 2024 for the Easter break. Complaints can still be made via our complaints form but they will not be received until we reopen. Wishing you a happy Easter! 

Technical issues:

The SPSO advice line is currently unavailable due to technical issues which we are working with our telephone provider to resolve.  We apologise for the inconvenience and hope to find a resolution as soon as possible. 

Frequently Asked Questions - Putting things right

We assess cases to establish if there was maladministration, resulting in injustice or negative impact on the complainant.  Maladministration can cover situations where people have been treated unfairly.  This is not restricted to discrimination as defined in equalities legislation. 

If you complain that you have been treated differently, organisations should be able to explain what they do to make sure people are treated fairly and how they have done so in your case.  In some cases, they may decide to check you have been treated in a similar way to other people in similar situations but they will not be able to provide you with details about how other people have been treated because that is information that is personal to them.  Organisations should be fair but that does not mean they need to treat everyone the same.  If they have good reasons for treating people or situations differently, they are still acting fairly. 

If you complain to us you have been treated unfairly and we decide to investigate, we will be able to consider how they have treated you and, in some case, will ask about how others were treated to make sure you were treated fairly. However, we also, will not provide you with details that are personal to other people.

The Equalities and Human Rights Commission  (EHRC) website explains what your choices are if you think you have been discriminated against. This includes information about the Equalities Advice and Support Service (EASS) who can give you advice and information. There are time limits for making a legal claim and if you are considering that option, you should take advice quickly.

Only the legal route can establish whether or not someone has acted unlawfully or breached the legislation.  If you decide to complain rather than use a legal route, this may limit what outcome you can achieve, but  public organisations should be able to respond to claims that you have been discriminated against and tell you what they have done to ensure they are taking the law into account.  If you complain to the SPSO and we decide to investigate, we will be able to check they have done this.

We can consider whether, in our view, the organisation have taken their obligations seriously and provided a reasonable explanation of their interpretation of the legislation.  We cannot determine whether that is lawful or not. 

It is important you choose the route which is best for you.  As well as the EASS, there are a range of advocacy and support organisations who can give you independent advice.  SPSO can always give advice about what we may be able to consider or how to complain but because we need to be independent when we make decisions about organisations we won’t be able to give you advice about what your other options are and what might be the best option for your concerns.

Organisations usually comply with our recommendations, and we always follow up rigorously to make sure this happens.  However, if an organisation did not comply, the Ombudsman can take action to draw attention to this.

Section 16 of the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman Act 2002 says that we can lay a special report before the Scottish Parliament when an investigation report finds that someone suffered injustice or hardship because of maladministration or service failure, and this has not been, or will not be, remedied.

Since the SPSO was set up in 2002, we have not needed to issue a special report.  If we did do so, it would be for Parliament to decide what, if any, action to take.

You can search our reports here.

Our complaints reviewers always check with organisations to make sure that they have done as we recommended.   We expect to see firm evidence that our recommendations have been implemented.  If we find that they have not, we will go back to the organisation until we are satisfied that what we recommended has been done.

We usually make recommendations where we find that something has gone wrong, to help put things right and to try to stop the same thing happening to someone else. We always follow these up to make sure that they are carried out. You can search our reports and recommendations here.

Where possible, we work collaboratively with customers and organisations to help resolve complaints, in cases where it could result in a better or quicker outcome for a customer or learning for an organisation without the need for investigation – of course, this always depends on the individual circumstances of each case.

Yes. If no-one complains, other people may share the same experience and things may not improve.

When we make a decision on a complaint, we may make recommendations.  We expect organisations to carry these out and we check to make sure they do.  These are real outcomes for the people concerned, and so our complaints investigations can lead to wider improvement across a council, health board etc and sometimes across a whole sector.  You can search the reports of our investigations here, and you can find more information about how we put things right here.

Where possible, we work collaboratively with customers and organisations to help resolve complaints, in cases where it could result in a better or quicker outcome for a customer or learning for an organisation without the need for investigation – of course, this always depends on the individual circumstances of each case.