Complaints about our service

Updated 1 April 2025

About this webpage

We are committed to providing a high standard of service to our customers. We welcome the opportunity to consider and respond to concerns about our service so we can help resolve issues and improve our service.

This page sets out the types of complaints about our service we deal with, how to complain and our process for dealing with complaints.

Our Complaints Policy has additional information on our complaints process, the types of outcomes we can provide and complaints we are not able to consider.

What complaints can you deal with?

We can deal with complaints about the service we have provided. Examples include:

• mistakes or lack of care
• unreasonable delay
• unprofessional behaviour
• discrimination
• bias.

Please make your complaint as soon as possible after the problem arose. We accept complaints about our service within six months of the concern/event. We will only look at complaints we receive after six months of the issues complained about if there is a good reason for the delay.

We will not be able to change formal decisions we have made about your case through our complaints policy – see can I complain about a regulatory decision you have made?

How do I make a complaint?

You can fill in our form if you want to make your complaint online. You can also email, write to us, or speak to the person you have been dealing with or their manager.

Make a complaint about the SRA now

To help us make sure we have understood your complaint and not missed anything, please tell us:

• your full name, contact details and any reference number you may have for your case
• what you think we have done wrong
• what you think we should do to put things right.

If you need any help making your complaint, we will do our best to help you. We can provide reasonable adjustments to help you access our service. Please also read our policy on managing unreasonable behaviour towards SRA staff.

How will you deal with my complaint?

Stage 1: The team you have been dealing with will respond to your complaint

In most cases, the best person to respond quickly to your complaint is the person you have been dealing with or their manager. We will acknowledge your complaint within five working days of receiving it and the department you've been dealing with will respond to you within 20 working days of receipt of your complaint. We may be able to deal with the matter in a phone call, or we may need to carry out a detailed review. We will write to you to tell you the outcome of your complaint. You will also have the opportunity to have your complaint reviewed by our Corporate Complaints Team if you are not satisfied with the outcome.

Stage 2: If you are not satisfied, you can escalate your complaint

The Corporate Complaints Team will acknowledge your complaint within five working days of receiving it. It may take them up to 25 working days to respond to your complaint from the date of receipt.

In some cases, the department you have been dealing with may pass your complaint directly to the Corporate Complaints Team. If they do this, we will tell you why.

What if my complaint is justified?

If your complaint is justified, we will say sorry to you and explain what went wrong and how we plan to put things right. We will learn from our mistakes to improve how we work.

What if I am not satisfied with the response from the Corporate Complaints Team?

If you are still unhappy with our response, you can ask the Independent Reviewer of Complaints to review your complaint. The Independent Reviewer of Complaints is independent of us, and you can either tell us that you would like to refer your complaint and we can do this for you, or you can do it yourself. You must do this within 20 working days from our Corporate Complaints Team sending you its response.

The Independent Reviewer of Complaints will only be able to investigate your complaint after we have completed all the stages of our complaints procedure. They have specific conditions for accepting a complaint and cannot overturn a regulatory decision we have made. For further details, see our Complaints Policy.

How to contact the Independent Reviewer of Complaints

How to contact the independent reviewer

By email: complaintsreview@cedr.com

By post:

Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution (CEDR)
100 St. Paul's Churchyard
London
EC4M 8BU
United Kingdom

By phone: 020 7536 6000

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