Scottish Public Services Ombudsman

The Scottish Public Services Ombudsman (SPSO) is the organisation that handles complaints about public services in Scotland. The Ombudsman service is independent of government and with a duty to act impartially.

The SPSO is responsible for looking at complaints made by individual members of the Scottish public about most organisations providing public services in Scotland including councils, the National Health Service, housing associations, the Scottish Government and its agencies and directorates, universities and colleges, prisons and most Scottish public authorities.

The SPSO examines complaints where a member of the public claims to have suffered injustice or hardship as a result of maladministration or service failure. The SPSO is the 'last resort'; investigating cases after the complainant has already exhausted the formal complaints procedure of the organisation concerned.

The SPSO also shares learning from its work to improve service delivery across the public services spectrum in Scotland. The office carries out awareness-raising activities with the general public, and bodies under jurisdiction and promotes good complaints handling by public service providers in Scotland. The SPSO has a separate website to support best practice in complaints handling.

On 23 October 2002 the ombudsman service, headed by the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman, was established by the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman Act 2002. This Act of the Scottish Parliament outlines the Ombudsman's role and terms of appointment. The legislation established the ombudsman as a 'one-stop-shop' assuming statutory duties that had previously been the remit of three previous offices – the Scottish Parliamentary Ombudsman, the Health Service Ombudsman, the Local Government Ombudsman for Scotland. It also took over non-statutory duties from the Housing Association Ombudsman for Scotland. The first Scottish Public Services Ombudsman was Professor Alice Brown.

...
Wikipedia