Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014

172 Complaints about social services: supplementary

(1) The following are further examples of the provision which may be made in regulations under section 171.

(2) The regulations may make provision about—

(a) the persons who may make a complaint;

(b) the complaints which may, or may not, be made;

(c) the persons to whom complaints may be made;

(d) complaints which need not be considered;

(e) the period within which complaints must be made;

(f) the procedure to be followed in making and considering a complaint;

(g) matters which are excluded from consideration;

(h) the making of a report or recommendations about a complaint;

(i) the action to be taken as a result of a complaint.

(3) The regulations may—

(a) require a person about whom, or a body about which, a complaint is made to make a payment in relation to the consideration of the complaint under the regulations,

(b) require a payment of that kind—

(i) to be made to a person or body specified in the regulations, and

(ii) to be of an amount specified in, or calculated or determined under, the regulations, and

(c) require an independent panel to review the amount chargeable under paragraph (a) in a particular case and, if the panel thinks fit, to substitute a lesser amount.

(4) The regulations may require a person who, or a body which, considers complaints under the regulations to give publicity to the procedures to be followed under the regulations.

(5) The regulations may also—

(a) provide for different parts or aspects of a complaint to be treated differently;

(b) require the production of information or documents to enable a complaint to be properly considered;

(c) authorise the disclosure of information or documents relevant to a complaint to a person who, or a body which, is considering a complaint under the regulations or to whom a complaint has been referred (despite any rule of common law that would otherwise prohibit or restrict the disclosure).

(6) The regulations may make provision about complaints which raise both matters falling to be considered under the regulations and matters falling to be considered under other statutory complaints procedures; including (among other things) provision to—

(a) enable a complaint of that kind to be made under the regulations, and

(b) secure that matters falling to be considered under other statutory complaints procedures are treated as if they had been raised in a complaint made under the appropriate procedures.

(7) In subsection (6) “statutory complaints procedures” means procedures established by or under an enactment within the legislative competence of the National Assembly for Wales.