§ Mr. George HowarthTo ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department what systems are in place for monitoring complaints from members of the public about the service provided by her Department; and if she will make a statement [30849]
§ Ms Rosie WintertonThere are various arrangements for dealing with and monitoring time to deal with complaints in different parts of the Department. These involve a range of time limits and targets. For example, complaints about the service provided by the Lord Chancellor's Department Headquarters are recorded and monitored by the Departmental Correspondence Unit which aims to deal fully with complaints within 20 working days. The Public Record Office and HM Land Registry aim to respond to complaints within 10 working days and five working days respectively. In the Court Service, written customer complaints are recorded by civil courts on the Business Management System and records are kept of those dealt with by Crown courts and at regional offices, and also by Court Service Headquarters. However, from April 2002 a computerised system will be introduced for all courts, regional offices and Court Service Headquarters to record and analyse all complaints from court users. This will include verbal, telephone and e-mail complaints, as well as those in writing.
Details about the complaints procedures produced by the Lord Chancellor's departments and agencies are published on the relevant websites. The procedures make it clear that complainants who are not satisfied with the response they receive can ask for the matter to be reviewed. If the complainant remains dissatisfied following the review then he or she may ask his or her Member of Parliament to raise the matter with the Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration.
The judiciary are of course independent of the Department but the Lord Chancellor, as head of the judiciary, is responsible for investigating complaints about the personal conduct of Judges. He cannot consider complaints about judicial decisions. As a general rule he will investigate any complaint that a member of the judiciary has behaved in a way that falls short of the standards that both he and the public expects.
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