Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

Paper 3 Annex 1 19 June 2026

Paper 3

Annex 1

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Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Intern­al Audit 2026 – 27

Com­plaints Hand­ling May 2026

Over­all Con­clu­sion Substantial

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Table of contents

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Com­plaints Handling

Sec­tion	Page
1 EXEC­UT­IVE SUMMARY	2
2 BENCH­MARK­ING	13
3 DETAILED RECOMMENDATIONS	14
4 OBSER­VA­TIONS	20
5 AUDIT ARRANGEMENTS	21
6 KEY PERSONNEL	22
Appendix	Page
A GRAD­ING STRUCTURE	24
B ASSIGN­MENT PLAN	26

The mat­ters raised in this report came to our atten­tion dur­ing the course of our audit and are not neces­sar­ily a com­pre­hens­ive state­ment of all weak­nesses that exist or all improve­ments that might be made.

This report has been pre­pared solely for Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority’s indi­vidu­al use and should not be quoted in whole or in part without pri­or writ­ten con­sent. No respons­ib­il­ity to any third party is accep­ted as the report has not been pre­pared, and is not inten­ded, for any third party.

We emphas­ise that the respons­ib­il­ity for a sound sys­tem of intern­al con­trol rests with man­age­ment and work per­formed by intern­al audit should not be relied upon to identi­fy all sys­tem weak­nesses that may exist. Neither should intern­al audit be relied upon to identi­fy all cir­cum­stances of fraud or irreg­u­lar­ity should there be any although our audit pro­ced­ures are designed so that any mater­i­al irreg­u­lar­ity has a reas­on­able prob­ab­il­ity of dis­cov­ery. Every sound sys­tem of con­trol may not be proof against col­lus­ive fraud. Intern­al audit pro­ced­ures are designed to focus on areas that are con­sidered to be of greatest risk and significance.

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1 Exec­ut­ive summary

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Com­plaints Handling

Over­view

Pur­pose of review

This review con­sidered the com­plaints hand­ling arrange­ments with­in Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity (the Organ­isa­tion) to assess wheth­er these are suf­fi­cient, fol­low good prac­tice, and adhere to cur­rent legis­la­tion and guid­ance. We also sought to assess wheth­er non-plan­ning/non enforce­ment com­plaints are being hand­ling appropriately.

This review formed part of the ²⁰²⁶⁄₂₇ Intern­al Audit Annu­al Plan.

Scope of review

Our object­ives for this review were to assess whether:

• The Organ­isa­tion has adequate policies and pro­ced­ures in place in rela­tion to com­plaints handling.
• There are strong con­trols in place for the hand­ling of com­plaints, ensur­ing pro­cesses are trans­par­ent and clear.
• The Organisation’s pro­cesses are adapt­able to accom­mod­ate unique issues of gov­ernance and trans­par­ency that can arise in hand­ling complaints.
• The Organisation’s com­plaint man­age­ment policies, pro­ced­ures and prac­tice are aligned to and com­ply with Nation­al Bod­ies expect­a­tions (Ombuds­man).
• There is an appro­pri­ate and con­sist­ent approach to the escal­a­tion of complaints.
• The Organ­isa­tion uses past exper­i­ences to sup­port organ­isa­tion­al learn­ing and improvements.

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1 Exec­ut­ive summary

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Com­plaints Handling

• Com­plaint hand­ling pro­cesses effect­ively man­age cases that over­lap with stat­utory or leg­ally advised pro­ceed­ings, bal­an­cing the need to respond with the pro­tec­tion of the organisation’s leg­al and stra­tegic interests.
• Robust pro­ced­ures are in place to identi­fy and man­age vex­a­tious com­plaints, ensur­ing appro­pri­ate safe­guards to pro­tect the effi­cient use of pub­lic funds.
• The pro­cesses for hand­ling com­plaints sub­mit­ted dir­ectly to the Board are man­aged con­sist­ently and in line with form­al com­plaint procedures.

Our approach to this assign­ment took the form of dis­cus­sion with rel­ev­ant staff, review of doc­u­ment­a­tion and where appro­pri­ate sample testing.

Lim­it­a­tion of scope

There was no lim­it­a­tion of scope.

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1 Exec­ut­ive summary

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Com­plaints Handling

Back­ground

Com­plaints Hand­ling Policy

The Organ­isa­tion has a form­al Com­plaints Hand­ling Policy in place. This is split into five parts:

• Over­view for staff;
• When to use the procedure;
• Com­plains hand­ling process;
• Gov­ernance; and
• A guide for customers.

These doc­u­ments were last reviewed and updated in April 2021 along­side the Scot­tish Pub­lic Ser­vices Ombuds­man (SPSO) require­ments. How­ever, there is no review sched­ule detailed with­in these doc­u­ments. Please refer to Sec­tion 4: Obser­va­tions for fur­ther information.

Com­plaints Process

The Organisation’s Com­plaints Hand­ling Pro­ced­ure (CHP) aims to provide a quick, simple and stream­lined pro­cess for respond­ing to com­plaints. The CHP is as follows:

Stage One – Front­line response

• For issues that are straight­for­ward and simple, requir­ing little or no invest­ig­a­tion. ​‘On-the-spot’ apo­logy, explan­a­tion, or oth­er action to put the mat­ter right;
• Com­plaint resolved or a response provided in five work­ing days or less (unless there are excep­tion­al circumstances);
• Com­plaints addressed by any mem­ber of staff, or altern­at­ively referred to the appro­pri­ate point for front­line response; and
• Com­plain­ants informed how to escal­ate their com­plaint to Stage Two if unsatisfied.

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1 Exec­ut­ive summary

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Com­plaints Handling

Stage Two – Investigation

• Where the com­plain­ant is not sat­is­fied with the front­line response, or refuses to engage at the front­line, or where the com­plaint is com­plex, ser­i­ous or ​‘high-risk’;
• Com­plaint acknow­ledged with­in three work­ing days;
• Con­tact made with com­plain­ant to cla­ri­fy the points of com­plaint and out­come sought (where these are already clear