Ms MaryRose McGovern:

I was looking back at the numbers for the past number of years and our closure numbers in 2018 and 2019 were approximately 4,500 consistently. There was a build-up within the system after that and, as a result, we were supported by our Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman’s council in securing an additional budget allocation to bring in further resources to address that build-up before it became a problem.

On foot of that, we were in a position to close a higher number of complaints in 2020 in order to bring the numbers back under control, as it were.

I am very pleased to see that in 2021 we continued to close more complaints than we received. That is a critical indicator for us, because, as long as we continue to close more than we receive, we are able to keep improving on the service we deliver to all of our customers. It also helps our own staff because they want to make the service available in the speediest way possible to our customers.