The Public Services Reform (Scotland) Act 2010 (‘the PSR Act’) and the Scottish Parliamentary Commissions and Commissioners etc Act 2010 (‘The SPCC Act’) have been passed by the Scottish Parliament to give effect to some of the recommendations of the Sinclair Report.
This legislation gives the SPSO new responsibilities and powers in relation to complaints handling. The PSR Act gives the SPSO the responsibility and powers to oversee the development of standardised complaints handling procedures for each sector (local authority, NHS, further and higher education etc) and to support and monitor best practice in complaints handling.
These new duties will be undertaken by a new Complaints Standards Authority (CSA) which will be established within the SPSO in 2010. More information on the Complaints Standards Authority can be found on this website here.
Together the legislation will also allow the SPSO to take on the complaints handling roles in relation to prisons, until recently undertaken by the Scottish Prisons Complaints Commission, and water complaints, currently dealt with by Waterwatch Scotland. The transfer of prisons complaints to the SPSO took place on 1 October 2010. Water complaints are expected to transfer in the summer of 2011, although this will be subject to a commencement order made after May 2011.
A full version of the PSR Act can be found here.
A full version of the SPCC etc Bill can be found here.