§ Mr. WalterTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many complaints there have been about the Investment Ombudsman's handling of casework in the last two years; how many have been successful; and how many have failed. [84262]
§ Ruth KellyThe Investment Ombudsman, together with seven other dispute resolution schemes for financial services, has been incorporated into a single financial services dispute mechanism, the Financial Ombudsman Service. The Financial Ombudsman Service assumed its full powers and responsibilities on 1 December 2001 under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000.
Ahead of assuming its full powers on 1 December 2001, the Financial Ombudsman Service consolidated and revised the different procedures that the eight predecessor schemes had in place for handling complaints against themselves.
The Financial Ombudsman Service tells me that their Board appointed an Independent Assessor on 1 December 2001, and, in the period since his appointment up to 31 March 2002, he received 50 complaints. Of these, 12 were upheld (in whole or in part), 14 were rejected, eight were determined to be outside the Independent Assessor's terms of reference and 16 awaited a decision.
Since 1 April 2002 to date, the Independent Assessor has received a further 59 complaints. Of those on which he has made a decision, seven have been upheld (in whole or in part), 29 have been rejected and 15 have been determined to be outside his jurisdiction.