DEPARTMENTAL
COMPLAINTS PROCEDURE
HM TREASURY
December 1996
1.1 These procedures aim to ensure that all staff in the Treasury:
2.1 The Treasury's definition of a complaint is very broad:
2.2 These procedures cover complaints made about dissatisfaction with the way Treasury staff
have dealt with an individual outside the Department or a piece of business, eg delays in replying
to letters, not answering telephones, alleged rudeness of staff, etc. This includes complaints
made by other Government departments, Agencies, NDPBs etc, as well as members of the public.
2.3 They do not cover complaints made about Government or Treasury policy, process or
procedure which should be dealt with in normal correspondence. Nor do they cover a refusal to
provide information under the Code of Practice on Government Information, unless of course it is
alleged that the member of staff concerned was rude etc in dealing with the request for
information; or any Service Level Agreement with individuals or organisations outside the
Department which has its own review procedure.
2.4 The Public Enquiry Unit deal with 300-450 enquiries every week, mostly from members of the
public. The staff of the Unit are trained in customer care and have experience of handling calls.
They may receive, and will pass on, complaints as set out below.
On the spot response
3.1 If someone complains to you on the telephone, try to deal with it on the spot. The same
principle applies if you receive a written complaint; try to deal with it immediately. If that is not
possible, written complaints should be acknowledged within two working days of receipt; the
acknowledgement should say that a full response will be sent within the national standard target of
15 working days of first receiving the letter. Every effort should be made to respond well within
this target. Part 1 of the attached Complaints Form should be completed at this stage, even if
you dealt with the complaint on the spot.
Passing complaints on to the right person
3.2 If you are not the right person to deal with the complaint, whether received by 'phone or
letter, pass it immediately to whoever in the Treasury is responsible for the issue and who can
organise corrective action. Send the Complaints Form (with Part 1 completed) with the
complaint. If you do not know who to pass the complaint to, consult your own line manager; do
not hang on to it.
3.3 In the case of a complaint made on the telephone, tell the person who is complaining that you
are passing them on to someone else and give them their name and direct telephone number. If a
written complaint needs to be investigated by someone else who is not immediately available, send
an acknowledgement yourself. The acknowledgement should let the complainant know who you
have passed their letter to.
3.4 If you are passed a complaint by another member of staff, take action yourself within two
working days of receiving it, either by telephoning or writing with a response, or writing to
acknowledge the complaint.
Responding to the complaint
3.5 Dealing with a complaint will often be a matter of getting the details of what the problem is,
apologising for any failing and arranging for something to be done - eg replying to an outstanding
letter or sending on a document. If you need to, call the complainant back after you have spoken
to someone else to arrange corrective action. Once you have dealt with the complaint, Part 2 of
the attached Complaints Form should be completed.
Review by the line manager
3.6 If you have to send a response which you suspect will not satisfy the complainant, you should tell them that they can ask for the complaint to be investigated by the appropriate line manager.
3.7 If the complainant takes up that option, the complaint should be passed to the line manager.
3.8 The line manager's substantive response to the complaint should be sent within 15 working
days of the request for review having first been received. The response should refer to the option
for external review by the Parliamentary Commissioner if the complainant believes that
maladministration has taken place. At this stage, Parts 3 and 4 of the attached Complaints Form
should be completed.
Keeping the complainant informed
3.9 If at any stage in the process a deadline is going to be missed, write before the end of the
period explaining why you are unable to provide a substantive response and give a further
deadline - which should be no more than another 5 working days.
Persistent complainants
3.10 Some complainants will continue to write or telephone regardless of the response they have
received, and even after review by the line manager. If the complaint is the same every time, each
should be recorded in Part 5 of the original Complaints Form. If the complainant contacts
different people in the Team, this practice should minimise the chance of the complaint being dealt
with separately by different parts of the same Team. If no new arguments are advanced, a simple
acknowledgement should be sent confirming the final response from the line manager. If it is a
different complaint, a new Complaints Form should of course be raised.
Rude and abusive complainants
3.11 You may receive a letter or 'phone call from a rude or abusive person. Always try to be
polite but firm with abusive callers: never become abusive back to them, this will only make the
situation worse. If it becomes clear that the advice or response you offer has no effect, and the
abuse continues, there will be a point at which you should terminate the call or correspondence.
A note should be put on the Complaints Form that the correspondent/caller had been abusive.
4.1 The response to any complaint should offer redress as appropriate. This will normally be an
apology; an explanation of what went wrong; notification of the corrective action taken; and an
assurance that it will not happen again. If it is appropriate, the complainant should be asked at the
outset what outcome they are looking for. And, as far as possible, you should ensure that the
complainant is content with the redress offered.
5.1 All complaints received should be notified to the Team Leader (using the Complaints Form)
who will keep records of complaints in respect of his/her Team and monitor final resolution.
5.2 The purpose of these procedures is not to apportion blame but to ensure that corrective action
is taken and that staff in the Treasury learn from complaints. Each year,each directorate will
produce a summary of the complaints received and any lessons to be learned from them for their
directorates.
5.3 Subject to the volume and variety of complaints, these summaries will then be considered by
the Treasury Management Board. Before doing this, Deputy Directors maywish to select a
random sample of complaints and assess whether these procedures were followed correctly and
whether the response adequately addressed the issues raised and provided effective redress. The
Departmental Complaints Procedure will be reviewed formally by TMB at the time it considers
the summary of the year's complaints.
5.4 The attached Complaints Form provides a permanent record of the various stages of written
and oral complaints and should be held by all staff. Complete:
Copies of all correspondence and records of all telephone calls should be kept in a complaint file.