Complaints procedure
How to make a complaint about a service provided by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency.
1. Before you make a complaint
You can make a complaint if you are dissatisfied with the service provided by MHRA, for example if:
- mistakes have been made
- there were unreasonable delays
- you feel you’ve been treated poorly
We will not investigate complaints:
- about the service or care provided by hospitals, GPs practices, NHS services and other social care services, see feedback about complaints and NHS services
- about government policy or law
- about regulatory decisions
- that have already been investigated or are currently being investigated by Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman
- that are, or have been, subject to legal proceedings, including legal settlements
If your complaint is about something else, such as regulatory matters, it will still receive a response in line with our correspondence handling process.
2. Making a complaint
You should submit your complaint no later than 3 months after the incident has happened unless there are exceptional circumstances.
Please email the Customer Experience Centre explaining why you are unhappy with our service and how you believe we can put things right.
If your complaint is about our service, it will be allocated to someone within the team responsible for the issues about which you have complained. They will aim to investigate and respond to you within 20 working days and will advise if they need longer.
3. If you are not satisfied with our response
If you’re not happy with the first complaint response you received, you can ask for the Administrative Complaints Officer to review your case. The Administrative Complaints Officer will aim to respond within 20 working days and will contact you if she needs longer than this.
4. Wait for our final response
You will receive a final response from our Administrative Complaints Officer by email and this will contain details of how to contact the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman if you remain dissatisfied.
Complaints made under the Freedom of Information Act 2000
Separate procedures cover complaints made under the Freedom of Information Act. If we cannot give you the information you have asked for, or have to charge for that information, we will explain the reasons why.
If you’re dissatisfied with the agency’s reply to your FOI request, or the decision to impose a charge, you can request a formal internal review. The response we send to you will tell you who to contact to request such a review, which will be done by a senior member of the agency who was not involved in the original decision.
Whistleblower referrals
Whistle-blower referrals
The Bureau
10 South Colonnade
London
E14 4PU
Email whistleblower@mhra.gov.uk
Telephone 0203 080 6447