Complaints procedure

If you are unhappy with the service you get from the Office, there are different ways you can complain.

We take all complaints we receive very seriously and are committed to providing accessible and responsive services to the public and to businesses.

If you have a complaint about the service you have received from the Department, in the first instance you can raise a complaint. Please note we will not respond to complaints about the following:

  • matters that have already been fully investigated through this complaints procedure anonymous complaints
  • complaints about access to information where procedures and remedies are set out in legislation, eg Freedom of Information Act, Data Protection Act
  • when a breach of the Ministerial Code is alleged to have taken place. matters that are devolved to the Scottish Government or are regarding arms length bodies outside of the Scotland Office’s remit.
  • matters for other government departments

Our complaints procedure

You can make a complaint by email or post. You can send an email to [email protected] or in writing to

Scotland Office
Dover House
Whitehall
London
SW1A 2AU

Process for making a complaint

The Scotland Office has a three-stage complaints procedure. In order to help you resolve your complaint as quickly as possible, please include as much relevant detail as possible at each stage, for example:

  • the nature of the complaint
  • what (if anything) you have done so far
  • what you would like us to do to sort things out

Stage one: on the spot resolution

This is the first opportunity for the Scotland Office to resolve your complaint, with the majority of complaints resolved at this stage. In the first instance you should raise your complaint with the Correspondence Manager. Upon receipt of your complaint, we will contact the lead official who handled your initial query. Following this, you will receive a response to your complaint, within 20 working days.

Stage two: escalation of complaint

If you are dissatisfied with the way in which your complaint has been handled we will refer your complaint to the senior official responsible for the team against whom the complaint has been made. Upon receipt of your complaint, we will contact the relevant Head of Department and ask them to resolve and respond to your complaint.

Stage three: internal review

If you remain dissatisfied with this response, you may request an internal review by a senior member of staff who has no responsibilities for the area or team against whom the complaint has been made.The senior member of staff will respond to your complaint, reviewing how the complaint has been dealt with and the responses at stage one and two.

At each stage, please send your complaint or request to [email protected] or in writing to:

Scotland Office
Dover House
Whitehall
London
SW1A 2AU

Timescales for handling a complaint

At each stage, we will handle your complaint within a maximum of:

  • acknowledgement within 5 working days
  • full response within 20 working days

Extending time limits We aim to complete all complaints within the timescales above; however, if a complaint is very complex it may occasionally be necessary to extend the time limit. If this is the case, we will keep you informed of progress with the investigation, the reasons for the delay and the new deadline.

Following any stage of the procedure, a complainant has a maximum of 30 days from the date of the final response to request that their complaint be progressed to the next stage.

If you remain dissatisfied following the complaints procedure

If, following the three stage complaint procedure, you are still unhappy you can ask your MP to take your complaint to the independent Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) to review the handling of your complaint. You will need to contact your local MP in the first instance.

Contact Local MP

They can then contact the PHSO at the following address:

Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman
Millbank Tower,
Millbank
London
SW1P 4QP
Tel: 0345 015 4033

Recording complaints and confidentiality

We will log all complaints we receive so that we can monitor the types of problems, the best way to sort them out, and how long we are taking to deal with them. This also helps us to take a closer look at how we can improve our own service delivery. All complaints received will be dealt with confidentially and in accordance with the requirements of the Data Protection Act.

If your complaint relates to the way a FOI request has been handled you should email [email protected] or write to:

Freedom of Information Officer
Scotland Office
Queen Elizabeth House
Edinburgh
Scotland
EH8 8FT

In line with our complaints procedure timescales, we will aim to handle your FOI related complaint within a maximum of 20 working days.

Contents