Complaints and petitions about our services

What to do if you would like to complain about our services, or deliver or send a petition to Communities and Local Government.

Introduction

This guidance explains what you should do if you are not satisfied with the services you have received from Communities and Local Government. The guidance is available in various other forms to suit people with disabilities. For further information please contact our Information Rights Branch (details below).

Please note that Communities and Local Government does not consider complaints made against its agencies or a Government Office. They have their own complaint procedures, and if you have to make a complaint concerning their services you must contact them direct. A list of their contact details is also set out below. Communities and Local Government only becomes involved in complaints against these bodies if the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman PHSO (the Parliamentary Ombudsman) decides to investigate the complaint.

Helping us to put things right

Communities and Local Government is committed to delivering efficient, quality public services. We aim to provide prompt, courteous, helpful, open and informative information in response to every approach made by a member of the public.

We are always keen to hear the views of our customers, particularly the general public, about our performance - what we do right, and what we do wrong. We recognise that, from time to time things go wrong, and we do not always provide the standard of service that we have set ourselves. We are especially keen to hear about such instances since they provide us with an opportunity to put things right and to learn from our mistakes.

Types of complaint handled

Handling your complaints quickly, fairly, and helpfully is a key part of our approach to service delivery. However, we cannot deal with all of the matters that you might be unhappy about as complaints under these procedures. Examples of the complaints we can investigate are:

dissatisfaction with the way in which we responded to an enquiry; or the time that we took to respond
a perceived injustice because of alleged maladministration on our part
a denial of a request for information made under the Freedom of Information Act - see the FOI complaints procedure for guidance

We cannot, however, treat your objections to the Government's policies as complaints under these procedures, or the administrative actions of bodies other than Communities and Local Government (so we cannot for example deal with complaints you might have about a local authority). We will make notes of the objections to the Government's policies we receive, and we will make sure that they reach the relevant policy makers and Ministers. Complaints against other bodies must be made directly to them.

The aim of these procedures

If Communities and Local Government fails to provide the quality of service you expect, we will:

ensure that making a complaint is as easy as possible
treat the matter seriously from the outset, whether you contact us by telephone, letter, fax or email
deal with it promptly, politely and, if possible, informally
include in our response an apology where we accept we have got things wrong, an explanation of how things went wrong and how we will improve our performance in future
publish information on the complaints we receive - for example in Communities and Local Government's Annual Report.

About the procedures

Communities and Local Government procedure is in three stages that are designed to ensure that, if you are not happy with the initial response we give you (in stage one), you can ask more senior staff in the policy division concerned to consider the issue again (stage two). If you are still not satisfied, the Department has an entirely separate section dealing with complaints and they will review the case (stage three) and produce a final response to your complaint.

Ultimately, if you are still not satisfied with Communities and Local Government's final response, you may ask your local MP to take your complaint to the Parliamentary Ombudsman.

At each stage, the people whom you contact will want to know that you have already asked for your complaint to be considered under the earlier stages. As a general rule, they will ask you to do so before taking the complaint on themselves.

Stage one - Express your dissatisfaction informally

If you feel dissatisfied with a service you have received from Communities and Local Government, you should first explain your complaint directly and informally to the person you have been in contact with. If you have not already been in contact with someone or do not know whom to contact about your complaint, you should contact the Information Rights Branch (IRB) at the following address:

Information Rights Branch
Communities and Local Government
Zone 4/D10
Ashdown House
123 Victoria Street
London
SW1E 6DE

Tel: 020 7944 5474
Fax: 020 7944 6929
Email: Neeta.Patel@communities.gsi.gov.uk

We describe this as an informal stage because it is carried out with minimal record keeping, and that means it can be carried out quickly.

You can express your dissatisfaction by letter, fax, email or telephone. However, if you phone, your contact will ask for a short period - five working days at most - to consider the issue. When you make contact under these procedures, please let us know how you would prefer to receive a response and provide the relevant contact details.

When Communities and Local Government staff have considered your issue, your initial contact will get in touch to give you an informal response. They will explain how and why they have come to their conclusions. If they do not accept the complaint, they will explain why not, and advise you what to do next if you are still not satisfied. They will give you the name and contact details of their own line manager for you to pursue your complaint formally with them under stage two of these procedures.

Stage two - Making a formal complaint

If you are not satisfied with the response you receive under stage one of these procedures, you should write to your first contact's immediate line manager setting out your complaint clearly and in detail. If you are still unclear as to who this is, please contact Information Rights Branch. You should make it clear to the line manager that you want this treated as a formal complaint under stage two of Communities and Local Government complaint procedures.

You may write via e-mail or fax, or you may phone the manager concerned. However, because we are obliged to keep formal records of all formal complaints, we will need to agree a detailed, written statement of your complaint with you before embarking on a formal investigation.

The person who receives your complaint under stage two will:

make sure that the complaint is clear
check that the stage one procedure has been completed
review, with the person who dealt with your initial approach, the reasons for their response
consider the issues afresh for themselves
consult our lawyers if there any doubts about our statutory powers relevant to the issues
decide upon their own findings in the light of these considerations
write to you setting out their findings.

Our target for replying to formal complaints at this stage of the procedure is 20 working days from the date of receipt. If it is not possible to give you a full reply within this time, we will give you an interim response, telling you what is being done to deal with your complaint, and when you can expect the full reply.

Stage three - The complaints officer

If you are not satisfied with the response under stage two, you should write to Communities and Local Government Complaints Manager, c/o Information Rights Branch (you may also phone them but they will need to confirm with you in writing a written statement of the complaint before starting their investigation). They are independent from all policy divisions in Communities and Local Government and will consider the matter for themselves. They will ask the responsible Branch Head to review the considerations already given to the matter, and to consider them again for themseves. They will also make sure that the issues are considered by our lawyers.

The Complaints Manager aims to respond fully to stage three complaints within 10 working days. If this is not possible, they will write to let you know what is being done to deal with your complaint, and when you can expect the full reply. This will be Communities and Local Government's final response to you under these procedures.

Stage four - Review by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman

If you remain unhappy with Communities and Local Government's final response, you can ask your MP to request that the independent Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman PHSO (the Ombudsman) conducts an independent review of your complaint and how it has been handled.

Further information about the independent review arrangements can be obtained from the Ombudsman's office at the following address:

Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman
Millbank Tower
Millbank
London
SW1P 4QP

Helpline: 0845 015 4033
Fax: 020 7217 4160
Email: opca-enqu@ombudsman.org.uk
Website: www.ombudsman.org.uk (external link)

If the Ombudsman is satisfied that your complaint has been dealt with fairly, she will close your case and, normally, we will not then respond to further approaches about the matter. If the Ombudsman finds that your complaint is justified, she can recommend that Communities and Local Government should provide a remedy.

Complaints concerning Executive Agencies or Government Offices

If your complaint relates to a service provided by one of Communities and Local Government's Executive Agencies or Government Offices, you should contact them direct. You can find contact details on their websites which are listed on separate pages of this site - refer to the links above, right.

Petitions

If you would like to hand deliver a petition, please contact Communities and Local Government prior to your arrival on 0207 944 4400 to ensure that someone can collect your petition.

Unfortunately photography is only allowed outside Eland House, for security reasons and only a small number of people may deliver the petition as Eland House is a busy working office building. Alternatively you may hand your petition to your local MP, and ask them to write a note of support, who will then pass it to the correct Minister and Department for you.

If you deliver a petition to the Department it will be collected by the relevant member of the policy team who will ensure it receives the appropriate response, in a timely fashion. If media are present a member of our communications team will also attend.

Our security staff may be on hand, but this is just standard procedure to ensure public safety. You may also email or post your petition to Communities and Local Government. The correct address is:

Correspondence Team
Communities and Local GOvernment
Eland House
Bressenden Place
London
SW1E 5DU

Email: contactus@communities.gsi.gov.uk