Complaints procedure

How to complain

The best way for you to complain is to tell the person you are dealing with that you wish to make a complaint. They will refer your complaint to the Complaints Manager. Alternatively you can write or e-mail to the Complaints Manager directly at:

Government Equalities Office
9/F8 Eland House
Bressenden Place
London
SW1E 6DU
enquiries@geo.gsi.gov.uk

Please write COMPLAINT in bold at the top of your letter or in the subject field of your e-mail. Please include as much information as possible about your complaint, including:

What went wrong
When it happened
Who you dealt with
How you would like the matter settled.

How we handle your complaint

After the Complaints Manager has received your complaint, we will acknowledge receipt, tell you when you can expect to hear from us, the name of the person handling your complaint and how to contact them.

We will thoroughly investigate and try to resolve your complaint as quickly as possible.

GEO is committed to answering most complaints within 20 working days.

Taking your complaint further

1. If you are unhappy with our response you can ask us to look at your complaint again. A senior officer who has not been involved will:

Take a fresh look at it and how we have handled it
Give you a final decision.

2. If you are still unhappy you can ask the Parliamentary Ombudsman to look into your complaint. We will tell you how to do this when we give you our final decision. The Parliamentary Ombudsman will normally expect you to have had your complaint considered by us before you ask for his involvement.

Parliamentary Ombudsman

The Parliamentary Ombudsman is independent of government. Their service is free of charge. For more information, visit their website: http://www.ombudsman.org.uk/.

You can, at any time, ask your Member of Parliament (MP) to take up your case.