 How to make a complaint about the Scottish Parliament What we will do if you make a complaint Our complaints procedure has two stages Stage 1 – Frontline response This is for simple complaints that can be dealt with quickly by staff in the area concerned Your complaint might be dealt with immediately If not, we will reply to you within five working days A working day is any day that is not a weekend or a public holiday If you are not happy with our reply, you can ask us to look at your complaint again If you do this, we will move your complaint to Stage 2 of our process Stage 2 – Investigation Not all complaints will go through Stage 1 We might decide to investigate your complaint immediately at Stage 2 if it is complex Senior members of staff look at Stage 2 complaints Stage 2 complaints need detailed investigation as they are more complex What happens at Stage 2? We will let you know within three working days that we have received your complaint We will contact you to confirm what we will investigate and find out what you would like to happen We will usually contact you or the person representing you by phone Please tell us if you want us to contact you in another way We will let you know our decision within 20 working days unless more time is needed If we need more time, we will tell you why What happens next? If you are happy with our response to your complaint, that is the end of the process If you are not happy with how we handled your complaint or with our decision You can contact the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman We will tell you how to do this when we send you our decision The Scottish Public Services Ombudsman is a free and independent service It can look at complaints about the Scottish Parliament after the end of Stage 2 of our complaints process The Ombudsman can check that we followed the correct process to reach our decision