Health Service Commissioner for England (Complaint Handling) Act 2015

2015 CHAPTER 29

An Act to make provision about the handling of complaints by the Health Service Commissioner for England; to require the Commissioner to notify a complainant of the reason for the delay if the investigation of the complaint is not concluded within a 12 month period; to require the Commissioner to lay before Parliament an annual report giving details of how long investigations of complaints have taken to be concluded and progress towards meeting a target of concluding investigations within a 12 month period; and for connected purposes.

[26th March 2015]

Be it enacted by the Queen’s most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—

1 Statements and reports: investigations not concluded within 12 months

(1) Section 14 of the Health Service Commissioners Act 1993 (reports etc by Health Service Commissioner for England) is amended as follows.

(2) After subsection (2H) insert—

“(2HA) Where the Commissioner has not concluded an investigation before the end of the 12 month period beginning with the date the complaint was received, the Commissioner must send a statement explaining the reason for the delay to the person who made the complaint.”

(3) After subsection (4) insert—

“(4A) The general report laid under subsection (4)(a) must include information about—

(a) how long investigations that were concluded in the year to which the report relates took to be concluded,

(b) how many of those investigations took more than 12 months to be concluded, and

(c) the action being taken with a view to all investigations being concluded within 12 months.”

2 Commencement, extent and short title

(1) This Act comes into force at the end of the period of two months beginning with the day on which it is passed.

(2) This Act extends to England and Wales only.

(3) This Act may be cited as the Health Service Commissioner for England (Complaint Handling) Act 2015.