Promptly and Reasonable Endeavours
A housing service's published standard says officers will respond 'promptly' to written complaints and will use 'reasonable endeavours' to resolve them within 20 working days. Between April and June, 1,240 complaints were logged. Of these, 868 were answered within 15 working days, 297 between 16 and 20 days, and 75 after 20 days. The service manager argues the standard is met because 'the overwhelming majority were answered within the 20-day period'. A tenant representative argues it is breached because 'promptly cannot mean three weeks'. Neither side can point to a definition of either term in the standard itself.
1. Is the manager's claim that the standard 'is met' supported by the data? Separate what the figures show from what the standard requires.
Read the worked answer
What the figures show:
- Within 20 days: 868 + 297 = 1,165 of 1,240, about 94%
- Beyond 20 days: 75 complaints, about 6%
So 'the overwhelming majority were answered within 20 days' is accurate.
What the standard requires is different. The 20-day commitment is breached in 75 cases regardless of how the total is described, and the standard's own wording ('reasonable endeavours') attaches to effort, not outcome. A 94% result does not establish that reasonable endeavours were made in the other 6%; it is simply silent on them.
The supported statement is 'most complaints were answered within 20 working days'. 'The standard is met' adds a conclusion the data cannot carry.
2. What can and cannot be concluded about the meaning of 'promptly' from this passage?
Read the worked answer
Can be concluded: the standard offers no numerical definition, so 'promptly' takes its meaning from context - here, from the surrounding 20-day target and the 'reasonable endeavours' wording. It is a relative term, not a fixed period.
Cannot be concluded: that 16-20 days is a breach. The tenant representative's claim that 'promptly cannot mean three weeks' is an argument about ordinary usage, not a finding from the data. Equally, the absence of complaints about 15-day responses does not prove 15 days is prompt.
Both parties are arguing from a word that does not settle the question. That is the real finding: the dispute is about drafting, not about conduct.
3. Suggest the single change to the wording that would most reduce disputes of this kind, and justify it.
Read the worked answer
Replace 'promptly' with a stated period: 'acknowledge every written complaint within 5 working days'.
Justification:
- It converts an elastic word into a checkable test.
- It removes the gap between the promise and the 20-day resolution target, where most of the argument lives.
- It makes the 906 fast responses and the 75 late ones measurable against a single line.
'Reasonable endeavours' could be left in place, but only if the standard says what evidence will be accepted as showing them. Otherwise the same dispute simply reappears at the resolution stage.