15 February 2010

A Johnson

Via email ([FOI #27100 email])

Our ref: CS/10/004/HJP

(Please quote our reference when contacting us)

If telephoning contact Hilary Pook on 020 7217 4734

or if using email send to: [email address]

Dear A Johnson

Request for information

In your email of 16 January, you referred to a statement made by Dr Jane Martin, on her appointment as Local Government Ombudsman, and asked for information or evidence from an independent source that supported that statement.

You say that past surveys have suggested that the LGOs' service standards are far from good let alone excellent. However, the latest customer satisfaction survey by Ipsos MORI referred to strengths such as:

The Commission's response to this survey - which is on our website - referred to ways in which we would make improvements - the major one being that we launched our new LGO Advice Team in April 2008 and changed the way we receive complaints about councils from the public.

The Ombudsmen report on performance against their business goals each year in the Annual Report - the last three of which are available on the website. Dr Martin was particularly drawing on performance figures collected by the Commission presented in the Annual Report for 2008/09 which shows 100% customer satisfaction with the LGO Advice Team in 2008 and performance targets for the time spent handling cases being exceeded in all cases in 2009.

While there hasn't been any independent assessment of the LGOs' service standards since the 2007 survey, we are currently planning the next customer satisfaction survey, which will be carried out within the next few months.

/…

That concludes my response. If you feel I have not dealt properly with your request, you have the right to appeal and, should you wish to do so, I can supply a copy our internal complaints procedure. If you do request an internal review - can you please indicate why you are unhappy with my response. You also have the right to apply to the Information Commissioner to determine whether your request has been properly dealt with. You should note however that the Commissioner will not consider any complaint where you have not first exhausted our internal complaints process or where there has been undue delay in contacting him. You will be able to obtain further details of the Information Commissioner's role from the website on www.ico.gov.uk.

Yours sincerely

Hilary Pook

Hilary Pook (Ms)

Communications and Records Manager

LGO 01 (03/08)