Kirsten Oswald – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kirsten Oswald on 2016-04-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to the Annual Report 2015 of the Service Complaints Ombudsmen for the Armed Forces, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the finding that (a) some complaints first processed by the Service Complaints Commissioner in 2008 remain open and (b) other referrals by the Service Complaints Commissioner have been outstanding for over a year.

Mark Lancaster

The Service Complaints Ombudsman acknowledges in the Annual Report 2015 that the Services’ commitment during 2015 to resolve complaints that were raised before 2014, resulted in a reduction in their number of around 50%. The Ombudsman acknowledges that in some cases there is just cause for delay, but where her investigations under her new powers find that delay was unjustified and avoidable the Ministry of Defence will learn the lessons as part of its commitment to achieving a service complaints process that is fair, effective and efficient.