Citizen redress : what citizens can do if things go wrong with public services

Each year about 1.4 million complaints or appeals are made by members of the public in relation to perceived poor treatment, mistakes or injustices in service provision by government departments and agencies, at an annual administrative cost of [pound]510 million.

There can often be additional legal aid costs involved, particularly in immigration and asylum appeals and welfare benefits appeals.

The biggest areas of complaints involve issues around health, social security and taxation.

This NAO report examines the various redress mechanisms that exist for handling complaints and appeals about public services, such as customer complaints systems, appeals and tribunals, ombudsmen services and judicial review options; as well looking at the value of complaints analysis as a source of information to improve administrative procedures in public service provision.

Conclusions drawn include that greater efficiency in how government organisations deal with complaints and appeals could bring significant savings, since even a five per cent reduction would save [pound]25m a year. It recommends that information on complaints and appeals should be systematically collected by all organisations, in order to identify areas for savings and to improve service provision and so avoid complaints having to be made.