Email: [email protected]
The Service Complaints
Website: armedforcescomplaints.independent.gov.uk
Commissioner
Tel: 020 7877 3452
PO Box 72252
London SW1P 9ZZ
Statistics Work Plan 2015/16
The Office of the Service Complaints Commissioner (OSCC) is publishing this Statistics Work Plan in
the context of the office’s overall objectives1 and in accordance with the requirements set out in the
Code of Practice for Official Statistics2.
The plan sets out proposals for delivering statistics that are intended to meet the needs of users,
serve the public good and are produced according to the professional standards set out in the UK
Statistics Authority Code of Practice.
The OSCC publishes statistics related to the contacts it receives from Armed Forces personnel and
statistics sourced from Armed Forces administrative systems relating to the progress of Service
complaints through the Ministry of Defence complaints systems3.
As of January 2015, a dedicated member of the Government Statistics Service has been working to
improve OSCC’s statistical processes.
This plan sets out priorities for developing these processes and all other planned statistical
developments for the coming year (see Annex A).
A final version of this plan will be published (if required) following consideration and action resulting
from any submissions received in response to the consultation included within this plan (see Annex
B).
1
http://armedforcescomplaints.independent.gov.uk/aboutus.htm#role
http://www.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/assessment/code_of_practice
3
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/jsp-831-redress-of-individual-grievances-service-complaints
2
Contents
Overview of statistics in the OSCC .......................................................................................................... 2
Scope ....................................................................................................................................................... 3
Risks ........................................................................................................................................................ 4
Reviews/public consultations ................................................................................................................. 4
UK Statistics Authority (UKSA) Assessment ............................................................................................ 4
Coverage of statistics in OSCC ................................................................................................................ 4
Timing of changes ................................................................................................................................... 4
Annex A: Bulletin Series – Service Complaints........................................................................................ 5
Annex B: Consultation............................................................................................................................. 7
Annex C: Contact..................................................................................................................................... 8
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Overview of statistics in the OSCC
The statistical products and services described in this plan will be delivered in the context of the
overall vision and objectives set out by the Office for the Service Complaints Commissioner, and will
be managed in a way which helps the OSCC carry out its key responsibilities:
To ensure an efficient, effective and fair complaints process for all Service men and women and their
families, ensuring they have confidence in the complaints system and are treated properly, by:
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monitoring individual complaints;
focusing on outcomes and improvements;
holding the Services to account for fairness, effectiveness and efficiency in their handling
of complaints;
working with the Services and Ministry of Defence to see that lessons are implemented
swiftly and effectively;
accounting publicly to Ministers and Parliament.
The post of Service Complaints Commissioner (SCC) was created by the Armed Forces Act 2006 with
a remit which covers any complaint made after 1 January 2008. It follows recommendations made
by Nicholas Blake QC in his Review into the deaths of four soldiers at Princess Royal Barracks,
Deepcut.
The Act introduced a number of significant changes to the Service complaints system to make it
fairer, more independent and more transparent. As well as the creation of the role of Service
Complaints Commissioner, these changes included new joint standards for the three Services and a
new Service Complaints Panel, with an independent member to consider some complaints on behalf
of the Defence Council. Detailed guidance on the Service complaints system can be found in Joint
Services Publication (JSP) 8314.
In 2015-2016, subject to Parliamentary timetable, the Commissioner’s role is changing to that of an
Ombudsman. This will give additional powers to the Ombudsman.
In early 2015, a full-time statistician was recruited to OSCC to work with data suppliers and existing
staff to improve processes and bring statistical reporting in line with professional best practice
where possible.
Legislative and policy context
Pursuant to Section 339(2) of the Armed Forces Act 2006, the OSCC must prepare and provide
an annual report to the Secretary of State for Defence. Prior to January 2015, the production of
this report was done without any dedicated statistical resource largely without consideration of
enacted statistical legislation or professional standards, namely:
4
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the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007 which sets out the constitutional and
functional arrangements that govern the production of official statistics in the UK;
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the UK Government’s Pre-release Access to Official Statistics Order 2008, which sets out
the principles and rules governing access to Official Statistics in their final form before
release;
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the best practice standards set out in the statutory Code of Practice for Official Statistics
published by the UK Statistics Authority.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/jsp-831-redress-of-individual-grievances-service-complaints
Page 2 of 9
Following the appointment of a statistician in early 2015, work is under way to ensure all
outputs are collected, produced and published in line with the best practice principles set out in
the Code of Practice where applicable.
Management and deployment of statistical resources
The statistical resource within the OSCC is fully embedded and provides support to the
Commissioner in supplying statistics related to Service complaints. Currently there is no formal
statistics management or further deployment, but there is a professional link between OSCC and
the Ministry of Defence statistics teams to facilitate professional development and provide
statistical support regarding the professional standards.
Professionalism and accountability
OSCC statisticians are members of the Government Statistical Group (GSG), a cross-government
professional community for civil servants who are recognised members of the statistics
profession. Membership of the GSG requires successful completion of GSG entry process and
compliance with the professional standard set out by the National Statisticians Office – covering
recruitment, qualifications, competence and training.
Statistical portfolio
The OSCC currently publishes a single statistical product (its Annual Report) on a regular basis
using data gathered from a mixture of administrative sources. The Annual Report is not currently
designated as a National Statistics product - this label signifies that a report has been judged to
be fully compliant with the Code of Practice and has been through a formal assessment of
compliance by the UK Statistics Authority. The OSCC Annual Report has not been assessed by the
Authority and at present there is no planned assessment.
Publication and dissemination
Users and the public more generally can access all statistical outputs via the OSCCs website. The
metadata, accompanying notes and commentary in the publications are also made available:

http://armedforcescomplaints.independent.gov.uk/newsandpublications.htm
Links with users
The OSCC statistics team will publish a user engagement policy as part of ongoing improvements
into its statistical work. There is currently no formal consultation with users– however, OSCC
presents to users and stakeholders with the aim of making its published content accessible and
useful to as wide an audience as possible. We will continue to work to identify and consult with
groups of external users of our statistics.
Scope
This plan covers the statistical output as included in the OSCC Annual Report and includes details of
developments to improve data streams within the report. The plan does not cover the work of OSCC
in providing ad hoc statistical support by other means – for example, in PQ or FOI responses or in
other reports or statements.
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Risks
The main short-term risk to delivering the existing statistical publications and any improvements is
the retention of a professional statistician within OSCC. The organisation’s long-term goal is to
establish transparent, clear and coherent statistical reporting processes which can be fully
documented and handed over to trained non-statistical staff. Additional risks to the proposed
developments include the continued support of the Ministry of Defence in providing their data and a
reliance on the quality of administrative data systems which are not owned by the OSCC.
Reviews/public consultations
There are known historic or ongoing reviews of the OSCC statistical output.
UK Statistics Authority (UKSA) Assessment
One of the responsibilities of the UKSA under the Statistics and Registration Services Act 2007 is to
determine compliance with the Code of Practice (CoP) and the designation of published statistics as
National Statistics. At present, there are no plans for any formal assessment of OSCC statistical
publications. Where possible, existing UKSA resources have been used to carry out self-assessments
and provide guidance on areas for development. It is hoped that via future engagement with the
UKSA best practice team and close consideration of the CoP, the statistics released by the OSCC will
be considered for a formal assessment.
Coverage of statistics in OSCC
The statistics reported in the OSCC Annual Report relate to the formal Service complaints process for
the UK Armed Forces as laid out in the Armed Forces Act 2006. The remit of the reported statistics
does not currently expand beyond that and does not relate to broader related topics, e.g. Service
internal discipline, crime or Service justice.
Timing of changes
A final version of this document will be published once we have considered, and where appropriate
acted on, any feedback we receive in response to this consultation. We will proactively respond to
new demands for statistics – these may not be fully included within this plan.
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Annex A: Bulletin Series – Service Complaints
Activities during 2014-15
Annual Report 2014: On 24 March 2015, the Service Complaints Commissioner published
her 7th Annual Report covering the handling of Service complaints by the Armed Forces in
20145.
Statistical recruitment: Recruitment of Government Statistics Service (GSS) member to
OSCC. As a member of the GSS, the OSCC statistician will work co-operatively across
Government and share knowledge, ensuring that professional best practice is followed as
standard.
Statistics working group: Lead in establishing a ‘Service Complaints Statistics Group’,
bringing together data suppliers and key users to share best practice, provide a regular
feedback mechanism and bring together data developments across the topic area.
Activities during 2015-16 and priorities for future development
Data collection improvements: Work proactively with Services to streamline data collection
and move to a standardised, automated reporting process. The main aims are to alleviate
provider and producer burden and improve ability to measure data quality.
Timeliness statistics: Develop existing statistical reports regarding the 24-week target to
provide further breakdowns of Service timeliness and delay type in a more efficient and
timely fashion.
Case management system: Engage in roll-out of OSCC case management system and aim to
provide more timely updates of OSCC performance and help to monitor workload following
future changes to the structure of the office and the transition to a Service Complaints
Ombudsman.
Review and restructure annual report: OSCC is planning to internally review the existing
Annual Report structure, how statistics are presented and how users are able to access this
information. The aim is enable a more efficient production, provide a clearer narrative of key
statistical findings and publish a more easily accessible set of statistics.
‘Background Quality Report’: Develop and publish first OSCC ‘Background Quality Report’
alongside planned 2015 Annual Report. The report will seek to provide an overview and
assessment of the report methodology and quality (including relevance, reliability, timeliness,
accessibility, coherence, user needs, costs and security).
Quality assessment: Take a more strategic role in overseeing, reviewing and taking steps to
improve data quality across the statistics held by OSCC. This includes :
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Self-assessment against the UKSA Code of Practice6 to identify areas to improve
compliance and monitor progress;
http://armedforcescomplaints.independent.gov.uk/newsandpublications.htm#publications
http://www.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/assessment/code-of-practice/index.html
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Review of statistical outputs using the GSS Quality, Methods and Harmonisation Tool
(QMHT)7 to identify areas of improvement in the production of OSCC statistical
outputs;
Implement principles underlying the ‘UKSA Regulatory Standard for the Quality
Assurance of Administrative Data’8 and carry out regular assessments to guide areas
of improvement.
‘OSCC Statistical Policy Guide’: Devise and publish the first OSCC ‘Statistical Policy Guide’,
providing an outline of statistical working practices including release, revision, dissemination
and a statement of administrative sources.
Governance: Work collaboratively with partners to develop a clear governance framework for
Service complaints statistics, seeking to enable transparent decision-making and promote
clear ownership.
Update and act on Statistics plan: Provide a mid-year update on this statistical plan if
required. The update will aim to update on any actions taken as a result of feedback received
or significant changes in the planned developments of the office.
Other planned future developments
Transition to Ombudsman: Planned changes to Service complaints process and organisation
will necessitate consideration of new data requirements during the move to an Ombudsman.
Web-based dissemination: Take opportunity to investigate the introduction of web-based
visualisation techniques as part of the planned OSCC website refresh.
Resourcing: Ensure OSCC has adequate statistical resources to provide business priorities,
ensuring contingency is in place to minimise risk and training is delivered to non-statistical
staff.
Reconciling Service complaints data: Establish project seeking to consolidate OSCC and
Armed Forces Service complaints data to better ‘track’ progress of referred complaints to an
outcome.
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8
https://gss.civilservice.gov.uk/statistics/methodology-quality/quality-2/quality-resources/quality-methods-and-harmonisation-tool/
http://www.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/assessment/monitoring/administrative-data-and-official-statistics/index.html
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Annex B: Consultation
This consultation document sets out a number of proposed changes to the collection, presentation
and presentation of statistics related to Service complaints.
There will be no loss of information from these changes. However, the presentation of outputs will
be amended to improve data quality and present a more coherent overview of Service complaint
statistics.
The aim of these changes is to provide a more accurate representation of the complaints process
and improve the quality and reliability of published statistics.
This consultation will run from 1 June 2015 until 10 July 2015, with a view to providing feedback on
responses and a summary of responses received on the OSCC website. The responses will inform
whether a further final, published version of the Statistics Plan is required.
Based on the priorities set out in the OSCC Statistics Plan, we are interested in answers to the
following questions:
Based on the plans detailed here:
1. Are you aware of any impact or consequences which we should consider?
2. Are there any activities which should be made a higher or lower priority?
More broadly, regarding the published OSCC statistics:
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Do you use the statistics quoted in the published OSCC reports?
If ‘Yes’, what do you use it for?
Do the existing formats and presentation methods meet your needs?
Do you find the information you want easily on the OSCC website?
Is there any new SC-related statistical information that you would like to see included in
the publication(s)? If so, please provide details.
Please provide answers and any other comments on the content or structure of the publication to:
[email protected]
Please entitle your email ‘OSCC statistics consultation feedback’.
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Annex C: Contact
Any enquiries and responses in relation to this document / consultation should be sent to:
Address
OSCC Statistics
PO Box 72252
London
Postcode
SW1P 9ZZ
Email
[email protected]
June 2015
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