We will be closed on Monday 5 May 2025 for the public holiday. You can still submit complaints via our online form but we will not respond until we reopen.
We have updated our Customer Service Standards and are looking for feedback from customers. Please fill out our survey here by 12 May 2025: https://forms.office.com/e/ZDpjibqe8r
Mrs C brought three complaints to us about Business Stream's commercial charging. However, she failed to respond to our contact. We therefore closed the complaint.
Mr C complained that the conditions he was being housed under were affecting his parole opportunities. He also complained about the handling of a property claim.
During our investigation, Mr C accepted a full and final settlement for the property claim and was moved to a different prison. When we contacted Mr C to advise that we would not be considering his property claim further, we asked him to confirm that he wished to proceed with the investigation of his other concerns, given that he had now moved to a different prison.
Mr C did not confirm that he wanted the investigation to continue and consequently his case was closed.
Mr C complained that a hospital unreasonably delayed communicating an abnormal microbiology report to the relevant consultant.
We were satisfied that Mr C had a more appropriate remedy for his complaint and we considered that it would be reasonable for Mr C to use this remedy rather than SPSO. We decided to discontinue our investigation into Mr C's complaint.
Mrs C learned that she had a gene mutation which increased the risk of breast and ovarian cancer. She decided to have surgery to remove both breasts to reduce the risk of developing breast cancer, and reconstruction surgery. Her surgery was cancelled on the morning she was due to be admitted. The board said that the cancellation was due to their failure to ensure the correct implants were available for the surgery to progress, and apologised. When she complained to us, Mrs C was concerned that she has not been given an alternative date for surgery.
Whilst we were considering Mrs C's complaint she was given a date for surgery. Following Mrs C's surgery she decided not to proceed with her complaint because the quality of care she received from the board had been so good.
Mrs C complained to us about the board's assessment of the eligibility of her late mother (Mrs A) for NHS continuing health care (a package provided and solely funded by the NHS). During our investigation, the board told us that they had identified that they had incorrectly told Mrs C's family that they had previously exhausted the appeals process. They said that the family should have been informed that they could request a further appeal. The board apologised for this and said that they would be happy to consider a further appeal. We discussed this with Mrs C and she confirmed that the family wanted to submit a further appeal to the board. In view of this, it was agreed that we would close her complaint to this office.
Mr C complained about the adequacy of the overnight snack provision in prison for insulin dependent diabetics. He did not consider that the contents of the pack were sufficient for his needs. We took independent medical advice and made some enquiries of the Scottish Prison Service. We were advised that the contents of Mr C's snack pack had since been amended in line with an instruction from a prison doctor. We tried contacting Mr C to discuss the latest position but he did not respond to us. We, therefore, closed his complaint without reaching a finding.
Mr C complained to us that the council had failed to keep accurate information about his council tax account. During our investigation, Mr C did not respond to our attempts to contact him about an offer the council had made to try to resolve the complaint. We had no option but to close our file on his case.
Mr C complained that his prison's medical health centre unreasonably stopped his medication. However, before we could reach a decision on his complaint, he was released from prison and gave us no forwarding address. We therefore closed his complaint without making a decision.
Ms C made a complaint about health care she received whilst in prison. During our investigation, Ms C was released. We made attempts to trace Ms C but were unable to establish contact with her. As such, we did not issue a decision on Ms C's case.
Mr C complained about how the university had responded to complaints he had made to them. We began to investigate the matters but Mr C advised us that he had resolved his issues with the university. We considered whether there were grounds for us to continue our investigation in these circumstances but decided that there were not and closed the complaint.