How do I make a complaint?

If you want to make a complaint, we have a simple three-stage procedure:

Stage 1

The people who can best deal with a complaint are those who provide the service. So you should contact your local office or service manager about your complaint. We can usually sort out mistakes and misunderstandings quickly and informally at this stage. If you are not sure who to contact, you can call 020 7641 5000, you can also find a list of services and phone numbers in the A–Z of Westminster City Council Services available on this site. You can also obtain a printed copy of this publication from Council offices or your local Westminster library. We aim to respond, at this stage, within 10 working days.

Stage 2

If you are unhappy with the outcome of Stage 1, you can take the matter further. You can contact the relevant customer services officer. The customer services officer will ensure that your complaint is fully investigated. We aim to respond within 10 working days. However, when a complaint is complicated we may need longer. We will explain the reasons for any delay and say when you can expect a full reply.

Stage 3

If you are still unhappy after the Stage 2 investigation, you have a right of appeal to the Council’s Chief Executive, and the Complaints Team will carry out a full review of your complaint within 15 working days. We will let you know if it is going to take us any longer. The final outcome is then passed to the Chief Executive for consideration. When making your Stage 3 appeal please explain why you still remain dissatisfied and what you expect from a further review. You can write to the Chief Executive C/O at:

Complaints Team

Policy, Planning & Performance

16th Floor, City Hall, 64 Victoria Street,

London SW1E 6QP

Tel: 020 7641 1911

If you would like to view a copy of the Council's Complaints Leaflet please click here.

Please note that there are separate statutory complaints procedures for dealing with complaints relating to both Adults and Children's Services.

If you would like to make a complaint about Children, Young People & Family Service please click here.

If you would like to make a complaint about Adults Services please click here.

Local Government Ombudsman

The Local Government Ombudsman is an independent national service that investigates complaints against councils. You can complain to the Ombudsman at any time but he will usually refer a complaint back to us if it has not been through our complaints procedure. You can contact the Local Government Ombudsman at:

Local Government Ombudsman

PO Box 4771

Coventry CV4 0EH

Telephone: 0845 602 1983 (Mon-Fri 8.30am to 5pm)

email: advice@lgo.org.uk

Text: 0762 4804323

The Local Government Ombudsman has a leaflet called Complaint about the Council? How to complain to the Local Government Ombudsman. You can get a copy by telephoning or writing to the address above, or you can download it from the Ombudsman’s website. If you have an enquiry about the Local Government Ombudsman’s service you can telephone their Adviceline on 0845 602 1983.

Complaints about Councillor Conduct

From 8 May 2008, you can complain to the Council’s Standards Committee that a Councillor or a Co-opted Member has not observed the statutory Code of Conduct for Members. You should send your complaint to:

The Standards Sub-Committee

c/o Mick Steward

15th Floor

City Hall

64 Victoria Street

London SW1E 6QP

More information is available from msteward@westminster.gov.uk or via telephone on 020 7641 3134.

Complaint Form - Alleged breach of Members' Code of Conduct

How are Complaints against Councillors Dealt with?

A Sub-Committee of the Standards Committee will look at your complaint and decide whether to take any action. It may refer the complaint to the Council’s Monitoring Officer to investigate or to take some other action. In exceptional cases it may refer it to the Standards Board for England.

Do you use this procedure to deal with all the complaints you receive?

No, we do not always use this procedure to deal with complaints. Your complaint will not be investigated if it is regarding something you knew about more that 12 months before contacting the council for the first time. Also some complaints have their own legal appeals procedure. These include disputes over parking tickets, planning application appeals and Housing Benefit appeals. There are also special arrangements for children and social services and complaints about schools. Our staff can tell you when we cannot deal with your complaint under this complaints procedure and what the correct appeals process is. The Council is committed to treating everyone equally. This means we will not treat anyone differently regardless of race, gender, disability, age, sexual orientation or faith.