Complaints procedure
How to complain about the service you get from the Department for Business and Trade (DBT).
We are committed to providing a high quality service.
Occasionally, things do not go as planned or could have been better. If this happens, we’d really like your feedback, as it gives us an opportunity to put things right and helps us to improve our services.
Types of complaints we can help with
If you have a complaint about the service provided by DBT and our staff, please send us your complaint or comments.
If you have a complaint about a government policy we’re responsible for, you should write to the relevant minister or to your local MP.
If you have a complaint or comment about one of the agencies and public bodies we work with, please contact them directly. They will investigate your complaint under their own complaints procedures.
Customer service commitments
We are committed to:
- taking all complaints we receive seriously
- treating you with respect and decency when you contact us
- providing you with detailed information about our services, via our website and staff
- clearly setting out the standards we’re committed to, and letting you know how we’re doing against them
Customer satisfaction rates
We aim to:
- increase customer satisfaction to 90% for businesses for whom we provide intensive one-on-one support
- resolve at least 90% of all complaints we receive first time
Making a complaint about a service
What we need from you
We need the full details of the issue and people you’re complaining about. This will help us respond to your concerns. We need to know:
- the team and contact name (if you have one)
- whether this is a new complaint or a follow-up to a previous reply
- what happened
- what you would like us to do to sort things out
- your full postal address, phone number and email address (if you have one)
Most complaints can be dealt with by the team that delivered the service. All feedback is confidential.
Please contact them with:
- your name, email address, postal address and telephone number
- a clear description of your feedback or complaint and what you would like us to do to sort things out
- as much detail as possible about relevant names, dates and places
If you prefer not to directly contact the team that provided the service, or do not feel your complaint was dealt with properly, you can contact the complaints team:
Complaints team
Department for Business and Trade
Old Admiralty Building
London
SW1A 2DY
Email complaints@businessandtrade.gov.uk
Telephone +44 (0) 20 4551 0011
What happens next
We will forward your complaint to the relevant person in the department to respond.
We aim to answer all complaints within 20 working days. When we cannot do this we will explain why and give you a date by which you can expect a full reply.
For information about how the department handles your personal data for the purpose of responding to a complaint made about services provided by DBT and our staff, go to our complaints privacy notice.
If you’re not satisfied
Ask for a review
If you’re not satisfied you should contact us again asking for a review of the decision. This review will be undertaken by an independent senior official within the department.
Please explain clearly why you’re unhappy with the responses so far and what you would like us to do to sort things out.
This is the final stage of the internal complaints process.
Complain to the ombudsman
If you’ve gone through our complaints procedure and you’re still not satisfied, you can ask your local MP to refer it to the Ombudsman Services.
You can get more advice from the ombudsman’s office by contacting:
Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman
Milbank Tower
30 Milbank
London
SW1P 4QP
Telephone: 0345 015 4033
Fax: 0300 061 4000
Making a complaint about a policy or a public body
If you have a complaint about a government policy that DBT is responsible for, you should write to your local MP or one of our ministers.
If you have a complaint or comment about one of the agencies and public bodies that we work with, please contact them directly. They will investigate your complaint under their own complaints procedures.
DBT is only able to consider complaints regarding the services provided by the department.
If you think you have been sold something unfairly or have been subject to illegal business activity then you need to contact Trading Standards.
Feedback on the complaints procedure
We improve our services by listening and responding to your views. We welcome any comments or suggestions on our complaints procedure, to make sure it works as efficiently and effectively as possible. Please send any feedback to the mailbox and we will deal your enquiry as soon as possible.