Half-yearly complaints data: H2 2021

216 businesses feature in our complaints data for the second half of 2021 compared to 249 in the previous six-month period. The average uphold rate across all products was 37% compared to 34% in the first half of the year.

For our July – December 2021 data publication, we are also reporting on some of the cases we have settled pragmatically with firms, following our introduction of temporary changes to reporting outcomes from 1 November 2021 (PDF 1014KB). We made these changes as part of our work to reduce our backlog of complaints, that had grown during 2020-21 and the Covid-19 pandemic. The initiative built on good practice we have already seen from some businesses and has encouraged firms to do more to help get answers to consumers more quickly.

In line with those temporary changes, we have recorded the number of complaints resolved pragmatically by businesses in a separate column, and as such these are not reflected in the uphold rates of businesses. The published data reflects the last two months of 2021 – during which time businesses proactively resolved 1,243 complaints. The remaining number of proactively resolved complaints (around 5,000 complaints) will be published in our January-June 2022 data release later this year.

We also publish data on the number of complaints we receive by product and service each quarter.

The figures in the business complaints data are for firms against which we have 30 new and 30 resolved complaints. However the totals include all our complaints data, and is not based on thresholds. Alongside this data, we also publish our early resolution data. These are complaints where, with the consent of the business and the consumer, we have got involved in a complaint before the business has investigated it.

Business group: the name of any larger group that the business was part of at the end of the six-month period

Business name: the official name used for regulation purposes

Upheld: complaints found in favour of the consumer