8.1 A questionnaire (C1 - see Appendix F) was also posted to 64 people who had made a written complaint to the ADB, but from whom the Board had heard nothing further. Nineteen of these 64 Complainants responded to the survey (30%). Given that these were parties with whom the ADB had had little contact and who had failed to follow up their original approach to the Board, it was not surprising that the response rate in this case was lower than in the other postal surveys.

8.2 The essential reason for surveying this group of clients was to seek information about why they did not pursue the written complaints which they had made. The answers given on this point are summarised below:

The problem went away or was solved in some other way	5
Decided the problem was not so important	3
Thought the process at ADB too difficult or complicated	9
Thought the ADB could not help much	2
Did not have time to pursue	4
Action through the ADB was going to take too long	4
Other	3

8.3 These 19 Complainants gave a total of 30 reasons why they had not pursued their complaint. Of these reasons, eight (27%) related to the problem having been solved or being seen by the Complainant as not warranting further action. Nineteen (63%) of the reasons given, however, related to barriers or disincentives of some kind to pursuing the matter, including the perceived difficulty or complexity of the ADB process or a belief that the ADB could not help or would take too long. "Other" reasons given included the difficulty of getting "into the city" for an interview ("I couldn't get time off work") and consistently having difficulty reaching the ADB's representative by telephone ("It didn't seem worth the hassle to the Board or eventually to me!").

8.4 When asked whether they still had the problem which they had written to the ADB about, six of these Complainants said yes, ten said no, and three were not sure or felt it was hard to say.

8.5 Six of these Complainants reported having obtained help with their problem from some other source. These other sources included the Ombudsman, a local MP, EEO staff within the institution concerned and the courts.

8.6 General comments made by these Complainants raised the following issues:

• Board staff too difficult to reach, calls not returned, delay in getting a reply, matter passed from one staff member to another.
• Too difficult to pursue a complaint against a large institution.
• "They asked for our case to be given in writing. All the events of the past 5 years were too great to simply be put into one letter".
• The ADB and its staff were helpful but for one reason or another the Complainant did not decide to pursue the matter.