Client Satisfaction Survey 2019

Following the Prime Minister’s announcement of changes to parliamentarians’ work expenses on 13 January 2017, the Independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority (IPEA) was established as an independent statutory authority. As outlined in its first Corporate Plan, IPEA’s core objective is to advise, audit and report on parliamentarians’ work expenses in a professional and independent manner, providing clear advice to parliamentarians and their staff, and clear oversight of expenses and allowances through auditing and reporting functions. Ultimately, the role of IPEA is to enable parliamentarians and their staff to undertake their work effectively, whilst ensuring tax-payer money is spent efficiently, effectively and ethically.

In the 2018-2019 Portfolio Budget Statements, clear performance criteria and targets are set from 2017-2021. In order to ensure that these targets are met, and that parliamentarians and their staff’s expectations and needs are being met, IPEA conducted a survey in 2018 to evaluate satisfaction with the services tit is providing, how these are being received, and what, if any, areas of service provision should be a focus for improvement.

Following the 2018 survey, IPEA re-commissioned Kantar’s Public Division to conduct the 2019 client satisfaction survey to provide a robust measure of overall satisfaction with the information and services provided by IPEA to parliamentarians and their staff. The 2019 survey sought to compare satisfaction outcomes year on year and to identify if the key areas of focus revealed in 2018 have been adequately addressed.

More specifically the objectives of the 2019 survey were to:

• Understand the ease of accessing the IPEA and identify the level of satisfaction with advice received.
• Establish how effective IPEA is perceived to be in administrating and processing travel expenses, allowances and related expenses.
• Determine the effectiveness of communication and information channels used.
• Evaluate the level of satisfaction with IPEA processes, reports and administrative services.
• Seek opinions on service delivery, performance, customer service and relationship management.
• Identify and prioritise service improvement opportunities.
• Highlight potential service issues to develop and implement appropriate response actions.
• Compare levels of satisfaction year on year and evaluate if satisfaction concerns identified in 2018 have been addressed.

The following report outlines the findings from this research in response to the above objectives.