Capita has not been specifically contracted to operate a complaints service for the National Health Service. Capita is under contract to NHS England until August 2025 to provide a range of support services for primary care in England. This includes operating a customer support centre for service users which would handle any complaints solely relating to the delivery of primary care support services.

As part of its primary care support service Capita will consider and respond to feedback and complaints from service users. NHS England monitors these through its contract assurance and governance mechanisms.

Capita has not been specifically contracted to operate a complaints service for the National Health Service. Capita is under contract to NHS England until August 2025 to provide a range of support services for primary care in England. This includes operating a customer support centre for service users which would handle any complaints solely relating to the delivery of primary care support services.

As part of its primary care support service Capita will consider and respond to feedback and complaints from service users. NHS England monitors these through its contract assurance and governance mechanisms.

The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) administers the NHS Pension Scheme and operates a complaints process as well as a two-step Internal Dispute Resolution (IDR) procedure. If a complainant has exhausted the IDR process and is not satisfied with the outcome, they may also be able to approach the Pensions Ombudsman.

In the 12 months to the end of August 2023, the NHSBSA received 813 complaints, 1,201 IDRs at Stage One, 295 IDRs at Stage Two and 55 cases referred from the Pensions Ombudsman. Some of the complaints the NHSBSA receive may progress to an IDR at Stage One. However, not all IDRs at Stage One originate as complaints as some complainants embark straight onto the IDR process.

These complaints need to be seen in the context of the number of members in the NHS Pension Scheme. As of 31 March 2023, there were 1,815,310 active members, 772,560 deferred members and 1,098,388 pensioner members.

The ICO has provided figures for 2021, 2022 and 2023 where the data is held, related to both data protection and Freedom of Information complaints cases. Due to the ICO’s retention and disposal policy, casework data prior to 2021 is no longer held.

You may wish to note that further information on complaints cases and outcomes dating back to 2016/2017 is available in the ICO’s Annual Reports which can be found here.

Data Protection Complaints

Freedom of Information Complaints

(these include Environmental Information Regulation cases)

Cabinet Office’s performance statistics indicate an improving trend of the services provided by MyCSP.

Cabinet Office continues to drive MyCSP to improve their current level of service and continues to work alongside MyCSP to deliver a number of short and medium term initiatives designed to improve the member experience.

In the last 12 calendar months (between 1 November 2021 and 31 October 2022), MyCSP have resolved 195 complaints relating to MyCSP’s service.

During the same period, the Scheme Manager, Cabinet Office, logged 231 instances of a concern relating to MyCSP.

This information is not held centrally.

Vaccine data inaccuracy issues are rectified by the Vaccine Data Resolution Service (VDRS). If an individual believes that their COVID-19 vaccine records are inaccurate, they should contact 119 and ask to be referred to the VDRS. The VDRS will contact the individual within 21 days, and rectify the issue. Where an issue concerns vaccinations received abroad, an individual must book an appointment via the National Booking System and attend a face-to-face appointment to verify evidence of vaccination.

This information is not held in the format requested.

If an individual believes that their COVID-19 vaccine records are inaccurate, they can contact 119 and ask to be referred to the Vaccine Data Resolution Service (VDRS). The VDRS will contact individual within 21 days and attempt to rectify the issue. Where an issue concerns vaccinations received abroad, individuals must book an appointment via the National Booking System to attend a face-to-face appointment to verify evidence of vaccination.

HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) does not record complaints by any classifications that can be used to identify whether a complaint relates to Single Justice Procedure Notices.

HMCTS records complaints that relate to the Single Justice Service (SJS) jurisdiction, for which the following complaints were recorded:

Source: Data extracted from OPTIC: 25/11/2021 15:28

The Department publish complaints received data on a quarterly basis on Gov.uk.

The data is currently published up to June 2021 and is available at DWP complaints data - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

We do not routinely publish data on complaints.

Data on the performance of key government contracts can be found here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/key-performance-indicators-kpis-for-governments-most-important-contracts

Previous departmental guidance on Recording and Reporting Racist Incidents, published by the Department for Children, Schools and Families, encouraged state-funded schools to record, monitor, and report all racist incidents to their responsible body, informing local authorities at least annually of the pattern and frequency of any incidents. This changed with the introduction of the Equality Act 2010. Under section 149(1) of the Equality Act 2010 (the Public Sector Equality Duty), state-funded schools must, in the exercise of their functions, have due regard to the need to eliminate discrimination, harassment, victimisation and any other conduct that is prohibited by or under the Act; advance equality of opportunity between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it; and foster good relations between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it.

Under regulation 4 of the Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties and Public Authorities) Regulations 2017, state-funded schools must publish information annually to demonstrate their compliance with the Public Sector Equality Duty. Identifying and reporting incidents of prejudice-related behaviour can help responsible bodies to identify any actions required to eliminate discrimination, evaluate whether actions taken are effective and demonstrate compliance with the Equality Act 2010.

Academies also have their own procedures by which they record complaints. The Education (Independent School Standards) (England) Regulations 2010, Part 7, section 25, paragraph j – ‘provides for a written record to be kept of all complaints’.

Complaints about racism in a school should first be made to the school itself. The Department may then be asked to consider them and does so on an individual basis, depending on the nature of the complaint and whether it falls within the scope of the Secretary of State’s powers of intervention. These are set out under sections 496/7 of the Education Act 1996 for maintained schools and the funding agreements in place for academy and free schools.

The Department does not use a separate category to identify school complaints relating to racism. Depending on the level of detail provided by the complainant, some complaint handling teams may record that the nature of the complaint is linked to racism under a broader subject heading of behaviour (for incidents involving pupils), governance (if a school’s policy or governance is deficient under the Equality Act 2010) or staff conduct (if an employee is accused of inappropriate conduct).

Between 1 July 2020 and 30 April 2021, the Department received approximately 3,039 written complaints about schools. This total is made up of 1,714 complaints related to local authority maintained schools, 1,093 related to academies and free schools, and 232 related to independent schools.

The Department’s National Helpline received 2,882 calls relating to complaints about schools between 25 August 2020, when the Department introduced new call handling software, and 30 April 2021. We no longer hold the data that predates 25 August 2020. There were 2,215 related to local authority maintained schools, 566 about academy and free schools, and 101 related to independent schools.

We are clear there is no place for racism in our society or education system. The Department does not keep a central record of all complaints made to us directly. However, from July 2020, the Department’s School Complaints Unit began recording whether ‘racial discrimination towards a pupil’ has been cited as a factor in complaints made to, or about, local authority maintained school.

Subsequently, racial discrimination towards a pupil was cited as a factor in eight complaints about local authority maintained schools. At the time of their approach, none of the complainants had attempted to resolve their concerns locally, using the schools’ own complaints procedure, so were advised to do so.

Whilst complaints about a school can be made to the Department, in most cases complainants should follow the local complaints procedure in the first instance. All schools are required to have a complaints procedure in place and we have published guidance on this for maintained schools, academies and independent schools:

Maintained schools: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-complaints-procedures/best-practice-advice-for-school-complaints-procedures-2019.

Academies: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/setting-up-an-academies-complaints-procedure.

Independent schools: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/regulating-independent-schools.

The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) is independent of Government and is accountable to Parliament through the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee for its performance. The PHSO will therefore reply separately to these questions by letter.

The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) is independent of Government and is accountable to Parliament through the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee for its performance. The PHSO will therefore reply separately to these questions by letter.

The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) is independent of Government and is accountable to Parliament through the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee for its performance. The PHSO will therefore reply separately to these questions by letter.