Under section 16A of the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman Act 2002, the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman (SPSO) is required to publish a statement of principles concerning complaints handling.

The SPSO draft Statement of Complaints Handling Principles was laid on 5 November 2010 and on 12 January 2011, the Parliament approved the complaints handling principles.

On 18 April 2024, the SPSO laid its proposed revision to the Complaint Handling Principles in anticipation of the enactment of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (Incorporation) (Scotland) Act 2024 (the UNCRC Act) which takes effect from 16 July 2024. The revision creates some additional child friendly complaints principles which will apply to public bodies falling under the remit of SPSO, whenever a complaint involves a child.

These child friendly complaints principles amount to material revisions to the existing complaint handling principles and therefore require parliamentary approval.

The Committee took evidence from the SPSO on the revision to the Complaint Handling Principles at its meeting on 29 May 2024 and the official report of that meeting will be available in due course on the website.

The Delegated Powers and Law Reform (DPLR) Committee considered the revision to the principles at its meeting on 30 April 2024 and had no points to raise.