How long do we take to investigate complaints?
Once you have submitted a complaint, how long will it take us to complete an investigation? You can find out more information about how long it is currently taking our office to complete each stage of the complaint handling process across all types of complaints below.
You can find out more about the complaint handling process here.
How long does it take to investigate a complaint?
The Ethical Standards Commissioner’s office is very conscious that an efficient and timely complaint handling process is critical to building trust and confidence in the ethical standards framework. We have completed a thorough workforce planning exercise and recruited and trained additional staff for the investigations team along with introducing new processes to ensure that all complaints in future are dealt with as quickly as practicable.
The average time it took to complete each stage of the complaint handling process over the final quarter (January - March 2025) of the previous financial year is shown below:
| Complaints | Stage 1 | Stage 2 |
|---|---|---|
| Councillor and board members of public bodies | 2.5 months | 5.5 months |
| MSPs | 1 month | None completed in financial year. Expected time is 6 months. |
Across all complaints, the average timescale for completing Stage 1 was calculated from the date on which a complaint was received to the date on which a decision for Stage 1 was reached. The average timescale for completing Stage 2 was calculated from the date on which Stage 2 started to the date on which a decision for that stage was reached. You can find out more about the different stages of our complaint handling process here.
Ready to make a complaint?
You can make your complaint online or in other ways. Follow the link to begin.