Investigation targets

Investigating complaints:

We will write to you within 10 days of receiving your complaint.

If the complaint is accepted, we aim to deal with it in one of the following ways, within 12 weeks of the start of our investigation:

Local resolution
This means trying to find a solution that you and the organisation you are complaining about can both agree on. This is often the quickest way to deal with the complaint.

A brief report or letter
We use this when the two sides cannot agree. This can also be quite quickly done.

A full report
Again this is used when the two sides can't agree, but is more detailed than the brief report and takes longer to prepare.

 

Investigating fatal incidents:

The timescales of Fatal Incidents Investigations can vary, depending on the kind of death being investigated.

Issuing the draft report
We will issue draft reports for natural cause deaths within 20 weeks and within 26 weeks for self-inflicted deaths – where we can issue drafts more quickly than this we will.

Some reports may take longer, due to delays caused by external factors beyond our control such as police investigations, second post mortems and toxicology delays.

From draft to final report
Once the draft report is issued, the bereaved family and the services in remit have an opportunity to comment. This process takes 8 weeks. The target for finalising the report is 12 weeks after the publication of the draft report.

Final reports should not be delayed because the service has chosen not to issue an action plan to deal with the points raised in the final report. The family’s legal advisors are also made aware that we will not wait longer than 12 weeks from issue of the draft report to issue of the final report, unless there are exceptional circumstances.

From inquest to publishing the report online
Anonymised reports will be published on our website within 8 weeks of the completion of the inquest.

Terms of reference
Terms of Reference