Dear Sir or Madam,

It appears that the new national performance indicator set will not be incorporating BVPI 4 (effectiveness of council complaint systems). These were self reported by Council's as being not fit for purpose.

The Commission for Local Administration in England ['CLAE']has been responsible for many years for advising Council's on how to develop effective and just complaints systems.

s23(12A) of the Local government Act, 1974 states: 'Each of the Commissions may, after consultation with the representative persons and authorities concerned, provide to the authorities or any of the authorities to which this Part of this Act applies such advice and guidance about good administrative practice as appears to the Commission to be appropriate and may arrange for it to be published for the information of the public.'

Could you advise if the decision not to include BVPI in the new National Framework was because Communities and Local Government had identified that this would identify a failure by the CLAE. Could you further identify if there is variation in the performance of Council Complaints Systems by Local Government Ombudsman Office (i.e. lower level of failure by Council's to develop just complaints systems).

Could you further identify if the Government feels that there is no need to continue monitoring Council complaints systems, despite Council's identifying consistently that they have failed to develop systems that are fit for purpose.

Would the government additionally provide copies of all correspondence between itself and the CLAE identifying that there is no need to continue to monitor council complaints systems as they have already been identified by BVPI as not being fit for purpose.

Yours faithfully,

Stuart HARDWICKE CARRUTHERS