Section 43: Standards for handling complaints
116.Section 43 places a duty on the Gas and Electricity Markets Authority and the Postal Services Commission to make regulations prescribing complaint handling standards that are binding on service providers. Such regulations will prescribe standards in relation to the way in which service providers handle complaints received from consumers (e.g. they might prescribe maximum response times). Regulations made under this section are not subject to any Parliamentary procedure; however, they may be made only with the consent of the Secretary of State (subsection (4)).
117.Under subsection (6) and (7), this section provides for the Secretary of State to make an order prescribing a date on which this duty on regulators to prescribe complaint handling standards will change to a power to prescribe such standards. Before making the order the Secretary of State must consult the regulator, the new Council and other persons as appropriate (subsection 8).
118.The power to prescribe complaint handling standards does not apply to the water sector (subsection 9). This is because the Secretary of State already has power to impose complaint handling standards in relation to water undertakers and sewerage undertakers under the Water Industry Act 1991 (c.56) in relation to the water sector in England and Wales.
