Complaining to the SPSO

Before asking us to look at your complaint you should first have completed the complaints process of the organisation involved.  For more information about how to do this, see our help pages about making a complaint.

If you have fully completed the public service's complaints procedure and wish to complain to SPSO you should complete our complaint form.  Please call or email us to request a form or you can access access an online form.

Please note that we don’t usually look at complaints if the matter you want to complain about happened more than one year ago or if the matter has been dealt with in court.

If you are not sure whether we can look into your complaint please call us on advice line freephone 0800 377 7330.

One of our Advice Officers or Complaints Reviewers will take your call and will be able to discuss your complaint and other related issues with you.

When we receive your complaint

When we receive your complaint we'll check that it is about an organisation and a subject that we can, by law, look into.

We will usually let the organisation know that you have made a complaint.  If it's not something we can look at, we'll let you know why and try to suggest who might be able to help.

If your complaint is ready for us, one of our complaints reviewers will consider it. For more about this process, see how we consider complaints.  

In most cases, we will report our conclusions in what we call a Determination Letter.  In the remaining cases the complaints reviewer will decide to issue a public investigation report. Read more about our reporting process here. 

If you wish to make a complaint about the service you have received from the SPSO, please click here to find information about how to do this. 

If you would like this information in any other language or format (such as large print or Braille) please ask.

You can contact us on our advice line Freephone 0800 377 7330 to find out more about any aspect of our service. 

This section was last updated 24 June 2010.