TIO Annual Report 2006/07

Reviews

This is the final step in the TIO’s investigative process. The Review Officer reports directly to the Deputy Ombudsman. The officer conducts an independent assessment of the investigation and evaluates whether the investigating officer considered all of the available information before making a decision.

While the Review Officer’s role is primarily to ensure that a fair and reasonable outcome has been obtained, consideration must also be given to the TIO’s power to investigate the complaint in the first instance, to relevant law and industry codes, to the TIO’s position statements and to whether the TIO had regard to the principles of alternative dispute resolution.

The Review Officer can be asked to review the outcome of enquiries, Level 1, 2, and 3 complaints and, if required, administrative Level 4 complaints.

In 2006/07, 260 reviews were requested, compared with 266 the previous year. Of these, in 63.8 per cent of cases, the Review Officer’s findings mirrored that of the Enquiry or Investigation Officer, so no further investigation was warranted. In 24.6 per cent of cases, additional information was sought by the Review Officer before it was concluded that a fair and reasonable outcome had been achieved and in 8.8 per cent of cases the findings were overturned and the complaints were returned to the relevant staff member for additional investigation and possible escalation. In 2.7 per cent of cases, while the overall findings were not overturned, additional evidence or information was obtained by investigative staff before the TIO was satisfied that the outcome was fair and reasonable.

One of the main achievements in the reviews area in 2006/07 was to remove the backlog of complaints awaiting assessment. At the beginning of the year, there were 100 cases waiting to be reviewed, with an estimated timeframe of around 22 weeks. As of 30 June 2007, there were nine cases awaiting review and the timeframe for these to be completed was two to four weeks.

Call handling performance

The TIO aims to answer 80 per cent of calls within 60 seconds.

The average weekly number of calls received in 2006/07 was 3,607, up from 2,948 in 2005/06, an increase of 22.4 per cent. Calls increased steadily for most of the year, reaching a high in early March, with 4,899 calls in a week. May and June saw a slight fall when calls were closer to 4,000 a week. As usual December was the quietest month, with closer to 3,000 calls some weeks.

The service level achieved was 45.9 per cent of calls answered within 60 seconds, compared with 79 per cent the year before. The restriction on recruitment due to a lack of space at the TIO’s former premises at 114 William Street and the significant growth in demand after January 2007 were the primary reasons for the TIO not meeting its service level.

The TIO answered an average of 2,881 calls a week in 2006/07, 15 per cent more than last year. Ten per cent of callers (about 350 calls) routinely hang up after hearing the introductory message advising them that the TIO is an office of last resort. The number of people who abandoned their calls after they had waited more than five seconds averaged 164 a week, a significant increase from 65 a week in 2005/06. An average of 250 callers a week were blocked by the TIO’s phone-answering system as there was insufficient staff to handle them.

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