How many complaints about the Law Society of Scotland received by the Scottish Legal Services Ombudsman were upheld in (a) 2003, (b) 2004 a…

Answered Asked by Marilyn Livingstone Lab Lodged 27 Feb 2006

The question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many complaints about the Law Society of Scotland received by the Scottish Legal Services Ombudsman were upheld in (a) 2003, (b) 2004 and (c) 2005.

The answer

Answered by Hugh Henry on 10 Mar 2006 · 11 days after it was lodged, on time

There are no figures available.Whilst the ombudsman is empowered to investigate the handling of complaints by theLaw Society of Scotland she cannot investigate the original complaint or overturnthe decision by the professional body. An outline of the ombudsman’s role is availableat http://www.slso.org.uk/about.html.
However based on the proportionof cases investigated by the Scottish Legal Services Ombudsman the ombudsman foundthat the Law Society of Scotland’s performance was satisfactory in (a) 48% of cases,2003 (b) 53% of cases, 2004 and (c) 47% of cases, 2005.
These figures are given in theannual report of the Scottish Legal Services Ombudsman for 2004-05, page 23, copiesof which are available in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number37015). The report is also available at http://www.slso.org.uk/reports.html.

In the Official Report

No contribution in the Official Report cites S2W-23529 by reference.