15-08-2013, 08:42 PM
Thanks Pat, Hugh. I’m not sure the issue is flexibility, as applying flexibility could leave the committee open to accusations of bias, which might explain why a fixed length of time was plumped for in the first place.
Maybe what should be counted is the time that has elapsed from the point when the alternatives were exhausted? OK this might be open to creative invention of retrospective ‘alternatives’ (though most people would fire their complaint in on time, I imagine) ... failing something like this, I do fear the 42 days is too short for some complaints to have failed other means of resolution, two or three months sounds a bit better to me. As Hugh says, ‘exceptional circumstances’ might provide wiggle room - but that’s subjective too. Cheers
Maybe what should be counted is the time that has elapsed from the point when the alternatives were exhausted? OK this might be open to creative invention of retrospective ‘alternatives’ (though most people would fire their complaint in on time, I imagine) ... failing something like this, I do fear the 42 days is too short for some complaints to have failed other means of resolution, two or three months sounds a bit better to me. As Hugh says, ‘exceptional circumstances’ might provide wiggle room - but that’s subjective too. Cheers