Agencies should have updated their complaints management systems to meet the basic requirements for receiving, recording, responding to and reporting on complaints as required by Directive 13/06 on Complaints Management Systems.

An effective complaints management database only needs to meet your agency’s individual needs and structure. It does not necessarily have to use complex or expensive software. The Directive also does not mandate how each agency's database should be configured.

However, it is clear your agency's complaints management database needs to be able to capture key complaint data including the nature of the complaint, progress of the complaint, resolution timeframe and outcomes.

It also needs to support the analysis of complaint data for the purpose of identifying business improvements. Several agencies have asked us for advice on the sort of information they should be recording in their complaints database.

Complaints Management Database Elements (PDF format 27k)