Ombudsman's findings December 2017
Today we laid 71 decisions before the Scottish Parliament.
Download the Ombudsman's overview (PDF, 231KB) or read it online.
Media enquiries can be made by email or by calling 0131 240 2990.
Festive closure
Our office will be closed for the festive period from 25 December 2025 and will reopen on Monday 5 January 2026. Our phone line will close at 11am on 24 December 2025.
You can still submit your complaint via our online form but this will not be processed until we reopen.
Scottish Welfare Fund Independent Review Service Engagement Event
Thursday 8 February 2018 - Wheatley College, Glasgow
We are pleased to announce that we will be hosting our first Scottish Welfare Fund Independent Review Service engagement event on Thursday 8 February 2018. This will be an opportunity for delegates to share good practice with a series of speakers, meet SPSO staff and participate in interactive workshops focusing on areas which will include:
Ombudsman's findings January 2018
Today we laid 68 decisions before the Scottish Parliament.
Download the Ombudsman's overview (PDF, 224KB) or read it online.
Media enquiries can be made by email or by calling 0131 240 2990.
Ombudsman's findings March 2018
Today we laid 33 decisions before the Scottish Parliament.
Download the Ombudsman's overview (PDF, 194KB) or read it online.
Media enquiries can be made by email or by calling 0131 240 2990.
SPSO Strategic Plan 2018-2020: Putting People at the Heart of Public Services
Today SPSO laid a revised strategic plan for 2018-2020 before the Scottish Parliament. The strategic plan is called “Putting People at the Heart of Public Services” and it sets out the Ombudsman’s vision for the delivery of her functions, focusing on people and public sector improvement.
You can read the responses to our consultation on this plan elsewhere on our website.
Ombudsman's findings April 2018
Today we laid 61 decisions before the Scottish Parliament.
Download the Ombudsman's overview (PDF, 286KB) or read it online.
Media enquiries can be made by email or by calling 0131 240 2990.
SPSO Business Plan 2018-19
We have now published our Business Plan for the period 1 April 2018 to 31 March 2019. This plan sets out what SPSO will do in the year ahead towards the delivery of our strategic vision and aims. At SPSO we strive to be innovative and world-leading in our approach to complaints, reviews and standards. We contribute actively to Scotland's development and delivery of first class public services, and the activities we have set out in our Business Plan for 2018-19 reflect this. We will update this plan on a quarterly basis to show our progress against our aims.
British Sign Language Plan
This year SPSO are working on our British Sign Language (BSL) plan. This plan will bring us in line with the BSL (Scotland) Act 2015, and will set out the steps we will take to make our service more accessible to BSL users.
Ombudsman's findings May 2018
Today we laid 91 decisions before the Scottish Parliament.
Download the Ombudsman's overview (PDF, 274KB) or read it online.
Media enquiries can be made by email or by calling 0131 240 2990.
SPSO Annual Statistics
We have today published our 2017-18 Annual Statistics. These detail the enquiries and complaints we received and determined in the past year.
We gave advice, support and provided signposting on 904 enquiries.
3,452 complaints were decided following detailed consideration pre-investigation.
We fully investigated 734 complaints.
The overall rate of upheld complaints increased to 58.8% this year from 54% last year.