Skip to main content

Departments: Complaints

Volume 457: debated on Monday 5 March 2007

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many complaints were received by her Department and its executive agencies in (a) 1997-98, (b) 2001-02 and (c) 2005-06; and how many have been received in 2006-07 to date. (121704)

In Communities and Local Government and its predecessor Department, the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, nine complaints were received in 2005-06 and four have been received to date in 2006-07. The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister was set up in May 2002 and comparable information for 1997-98 and 2001-02 is therefore not available.

The numbers of complaints received by the Department's executive agencies was as follows:

The planning inspectorate received 1,743 complaints in 1997-98, 2,584 in 2001-02, 2,793 in 2005-06 and 1,982 to date in 2006-07;

The Fire Service College received 40 complaints in 2001-02, 35 in 2005-06 and 27 to date in 2006-07 (data are not held for 1997-98); and

The Queen Elizabeth II conference centre received one complaint in 2005-06, and a further one to date in 2006-07 (data are not available for the earlier years).

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many staff worked in dedicated complaints units in her Department and its executive agencies in (a) 1997-98, (b) 2001-02 and (c) 2005-06; and how many there have been in 2006-07 to date. (121706)

Communities and Local Government, and its predecessor Department, the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister employed one member of staff as a dedicated complaints officer in 2005-06 and 2006-07. Communities and Local Government's forerunner, the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister was set up in May 2002 and the comparable information for 1997-98 and 2001-02 is therefore not available.

Of the Department's Executive Agencies, the planning inspectorate had eight members of staff working as dedicated complaints officers in 1997-98, nine in 2001-02 and 10 in 2005-06 and 2006-07. Neither the Fire Service college nor the Queen Elizabeth II conference centre have had dedicated complaints staff over the period in question.