Complaints procedure for the central Department for Transport only
| Publisher: | Department for Transport |
| Publication type: | Instructional |
| Published date: | 1 October 2002 |
| Modified date: | 26 October 2011 |
Making a complaint
The Department aims to provide a high quality of service to the public. Please let us know if you feel we have not achieved that aim and we will do our best to put things right. Feedback – both good and bad – helps us continue to improve our service.
If your complaint is about the service you have received from the central part of the Department (not one of the executive agencies), the guidance below explains who you should complain to and how we will deal with your complaint.
If your complaint is about our policies or transport-related legislation, you should contact the relevant policy division.
Alternatively, you can ask your MP to take up your complaint with the Secretary of State for Transport.
If the service is provided by one of our executive agencies, you will need to get in touch with that agency direct. Each of the Agencies has its own complaints procedure and the central Department are not able to deal with, or comment on, complaints about the service provided by any of the DfT agencies.
Complaints about our service
Step 1
If you have a complaint about our service, the best way to resolve it will usually be through the officer you have been dealing with. You can do this over the phone, by email, in writing, or you may be able to make an appointment to see them in person.
Step 2
If you feel that this is not the right way to resolve your complaint, or you have already tried and are not satisfied with the outcome, you should make a formal complaint by contacting the Head of the Division you have been dealing with.
The contact details for our staff are available through our Enquiry Service.
The division should acknowledge your complaint within five working days and provide a full response within 20 working days.
Please contact the Enquiry Service on 0300 330 3000 if you need any help in making a complaint.
Step 3
If you remain dissatisfied, you can contact our independent Complaints Officer. The Complaints Officer is independent of the policy and operational divisions in the Department and will look at your complaint with a fresh pair of eyes.
Please note that the Complaints Officer cannot consider a complaint until it has first been reviewed by the relevant division. Sending your complaint direct to the Complaints Officer will delay the handling of your complaint.
The Complaints Officer is also unlikely to be able to consider our actions during the course of court proceedings which have their own procedures for appeal.
The address to write to is:
Complaints Officer
Department for Transport
D/04, Ashdown House
Sedlescombe Road North
St Leonards on Sea
East Sussex
TN37 7GA
Email: dftcomplaints@dft.gsi.gov.uk
Telephone: 0300 330 3000
The Complaints Officer will acknowledge your complaint within five working days. As part of the investigation your complaint will be discussed with the Division you dealt with originally. Recommendations will then be made to the division on how best to resolve your complaint and, if appropriate, measures to prevent the same thing happening again.
Following this you will receive our final response, which should be within a further 15 working days. If we need longer, we will let you know why and when to expect our final reply.
What to do if you remain dissatisfied
If you are not satisfied with the Complaints Officer’s response you can write to your MP, who can refer your complaint to the Parliamentary and Health Services Ombudsman.
Freedom of Information Act 2000, Environmental Information Regulations 2004, Data Protection Act
Step 1
Should you be unhappy with the outcome of an FOI Act, Environmental Information Regulation request, you should, in the first instance, contact the named individual within DfT who signed your response. He/she will review your complaint, reconsider any decisions relating to the release or withholding of information and, if appropriate, provide a further response.
Step 2
If, after review, the original response is considered correct, your complaint will be reconsidered by another DfT official (of at least the same level of seniority) who has had no previous involvement with your request or complaint.
Step 3
If you are dissatisfied with the results of DfT’s internal review, you may appeal to the Information Commissioner.
If you have a query about the outcome of a Data Protect Act query please contact the Data Protection Officer.
