Annual reporting of customer complaints

State and local government agencies are required to report annually regarding customer complaints / administrative action complaints.

State government

State government requirements relating to ‘customer complaints’ are set out in Section 219A(3) of the Public Service act 2008 which sets out four criteria. 

Firstly, the agency must publish information about annual complaint numbers by 30 September each year.

The other three criteria relate to the numbers to be reported.

• the number of customer complaints received by the department in the year;
• the number of those complaints resulting in further action;
• the number of those complaints resulting in no further action.

Human rights complaints reporting

Section 97 of the Human Rights Act 2019 (HRA) also requires state government entities with a responsibility under the Financial Accountability Act 2009, section 63 to prepare an annual report also must include certain details in relation to human rights obligations in their annual reports.

The entity must include in each annual report:

• details of any actions taken during the reporting period to further the objects of the HRA 
• details of any human rights complaints received by the entity, including— the number of complaints received, the outcome of the complaints, any other information prescribed by regulation relating to complaints
• details of any review of policies, programs, procedures, practices or services undertaken in relation to their compatibility with human rights.

Local government

The Local Government Regulation 2012 (LGR), Section 187 sets out the annual reporting provisions for ‘administrative action complaints’ (AACs) received under their complaint management processes (CMPs). Section 187 provides seven elements (3 statements, and 4 data elements) that local governments are required to report in their annual reports and make available on their public websites within two weeks of their adoption (LGR Section 182).

Statements: 

• commitment to dealing fairly, 
• about how implemented its CMP
• including an assessment of performance in resolving complaints.

Data:

• Number of complaints made to (during the f/y)
• Number of complaints resolved (during the f/y)
• Number of complaints not resolved (during the f/y)
• Number of complaints not resolved – that were made in the prior f/y (this is the number of complaints that were carried over from the previous f/y that still remain unresolved)

The context of the statements set out in Section 187(1)(B) relates to annual reporting – what has been done in the reportable financial year.

• to satisfy the first element of 187(1)(b) a statement about how the local government implemented its CMP should relate to how the CMP was implemented during the year;
• to satisfy the second element the statement must include an assessment of the local governments performance in resolving complaints during the year. This is different to just reporting the number of complaints received, resolved, unresolved (all of which are covered by section 187(2).

This is a summary of the Complaint Handler’s Network (CHN) discussion relating to ‘annual reporting of customer complaints’ from March 2022.