Complaints procedure against the OFT

Stage one

At stage one, your complaint will be need to be addressed either to the Head of the Enquiries and Reporting Centre (ERC) or to the Senior Responsible Officer (SRO) for the specific case or project. Please email or write to the Head of the Enquiries and Reporting Centre or the SRO at:

Office of Fair Trading
Fleetbank House
2-6 Salisbury Square
London
EC4Y 8JX

The SRO's contact details can be found at the bottom of the web page describing each project.

We will send you a written acknowledgement of your complaint. The OFT will then investigate and respond in writing as soon as possible. We aim to respond within 30 working days. If this is not possible, we will contact you within 30 working days to provide an update.

If you are unhappy with the response from the Head of ERC or the SRO, there are two stages of appeal:

Stage two

Make a further complaint to the General Counsel's Office (GCO) at the OFT by email or using the address above. The GCO will send you a written acknowledgement of your complaint within two working days of your receipt. We will investigate your complaint and review the OFT's response before replying. We aim to respond within 30 working days. If this is not possible, we will contact you within 30 working days to provide an update.

If you are a party to a formally opened Competition Act investigation, certain categories of procedural complaint can be escalated to the OFT's Procedural Adjudicator for determination. For details, please refer to the Procedural Adjudicator trial page.

Stage three

If you are dissatisfied with the response under stage two, you can refer your complaint through a Member of Parliament (MP) to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman, who has the power to investigate further. The Ombudsman's job is to investigate complaints from members of the public who consider they have suffered an injustice through poor administration by government departments and certain public organisations. The Ombudsman's services are free.

You can contact the Ombudsman's enquiry helpline on 0345 015 4033 or write to:

Millbank Tower
Millbank
London SW1P 4QP
Email: phso.enquiries@ombudsman.org.uk

If you are dissatisfied with the OFT's response to your request under the Freedom of Information Act, you may seek a review of our decision by writing to:

The Internal Review Co-ordinator
GS/3
Office of Fair Trading
Fleetbank House
2-6 Salisbury Square
London
EC4Y 8JX

You may alternatively send an email to internalreview@oft.gsi.gov.uk.

We will deal with your complaint within 20 working days of receipt or, if this is not possible, advise you of a date by which we expect to have completed a review of your complaint.

If you remain dissatisfied with the OFT's response you have the right to complain to:

The Information Commissioner
FOI/EIR Complaints Resolution
Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SX9 5AF

For further information about forwarding a complaint to the Information Commissioner see the ICO website.

In May 2010 we published a Transparency statement (pdf 267kb) outlining how we will improve our transparency. It sets out our commitment to providing information about the work we do, including current work and how long it is likely to take.

If you are unhappy with the information we have provided about a specific project or case, you can complain directly to the SRO. The SRO's contact details can be found at the bottom of the web page describing each project.

When the SRO receives a complaint about the information we have provided about a particular case or project, he or she will either put things right or explain why it was not possible to provide more information.

This process does not affect the procedures described above for complaining about the OFT or requesting an internal review of a request made under the Freedom of Information Act.