Background Part 3 - Complaints Section 69 – Complaints: monitoring and setting of minimum standards by the Commission
183.This section amends sections 35, 36 and 40 of, and inserts new section 36A into, the 2007 Act (which relate to the monitoring and setting of minimum standards in relation to complaints). The changes to section 35 require the Commission to reach agreement with relevant professional organisations on how it will share information with them in relation to its functions relating to services complaints. It allows the Commission to share information about a practitioner with a relevant professional organisation if the Commissions identifies a matter of concern relating to the practitioner.
184.The changes to section 36 ensure that the Commission monitors practice by, and trends in the way in which practitioners, deal with matters resulting in regulatory, as well as conduct, complaints. It removes the ability for the Commission to issue guidance in relation to those trends, as a consequence of new section 36A and the changes to section 40 set out below.
185.New section 36A allows the Commission to issue guidance to relevant professional organisations about how they are to investigate and determine conduct complaints and regulatory complaints. That guidance may relate to timescales within which relevant professional organisations should aim to complete their investigation and determination of complaints. The guidance may also set minimum standards in relation to the matters to which the guidance relates. The new section requires the Commission to first consult the Lord President, each relevant professional organisation and the practitioners they regulate, and any other persons the Commission considers appropriate on initial proposals to set minimum standards, and again consult each relevant professional organisation and any other persons the Commission considers appropriate on subsequent draft guidance which includes the proposed minimum standards. The Commission must take into account any representation made by those consulted.
186.The changes to section 40 allow the Commission to issue guidance to relevant professional organisations relating to their role overseeing how practitioners are to deal with regulatory complaints or conduct complaints made to them, standards that must be set by organisations for practitioners that they regulate, and in respect of any practice (and any trends in practice) identified by the Commission in the way in which practitioners deal with matters which the Commission considers contributes significantly to services complaints being dealt with by the Commission or conduct or regulatory complaints being remitted to the relevant professional organisation. Where the guidance relates to relevant professional organisations, the Commission must first consult the Lord President, each relevant professional organisation and the practitioners they regulate, and any other persons the Commission considers appropriate on the initial proposals to set minimum standards, and again consult each relevant professional organisation and any other persons the Commission considers appropriate on subsequent draft guidance which includes the proposed minimum standards. The Commission must take into account any representations made by those consulted.