Complaints about service received
Tuesday 20 July 2004
If you import food and feed from outside the European Union into the United Kingdom and you are not content with the way that you are being dealt with by local authority enforcement officers or have concerns about the administration of imported food or feed control checks then you should proceed as follows:
- discuss your concerns with the case officer or duty officer who is carrying out the necessary checks. Most issues will be resolved informally at this stage;
- if you are still not content then you should ask to speak to a senior officer who will endeavour to resolve the problem;
- in the event that you are unhappy with this contact, you should ask for the details of the local authority complaints procedure and state that you wish to submit a formal complaint. All local authorities should have a written procedure for handling formal complaints. The complaint procedure will usually ask that you write to a nominated member of staff who will handle your complaint. Most local authority complaints will be escalated to senior managers, Directors and ultimately the Chief Executive of the local authority if they remain unresolved.
If you have exhausted the local authority complaint procedure without a satisfactory result then you may be able to refer your complaint to the relevant Ombudsman for the local authority. The Ombudsman is independent and will judge each complaint on its merits. They may ask for more information from both you and the local authority. Ultimately they will issue a decision on the complaint. The Ombudsman contact details will be different in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. For more information relating to services provided by Ombudsmen please contact them via www.bioa.org.uk or;
England
Millbank Tower, Millbank, London SW1P 4QP
Tel: 020 7217 4620
Lo-call Tel: 0845 602 1983
Fax: 020 7217 4621
Complaint form: www.lgo.org.uk/complaint_form.htm
Website: www.lgo.org.uk
Scotland
4 Melville Street, Edinburgh,EH3 7NS
Tel: 0870 011 5378
Fax: 0870 011 5379
E-mail: enquiries@scottishombudsman.org.uk
Website: www.scottishombudsman.org.uk
Wales/Cymru:
Derwen House, Court Road, Bridgend CF31 1BN
Tel: 01656 661325
Fax: 01656 658317
E-mail: enquiries@ombudsman-wales.org
Website: www.ombudsman-wales.org
Website: www.ombwdsman-cymru.org
Northern Ireland:
33 Wellington Place, Belfast BT1 6HN
Tel: 02890 233821
Freephone: 0800 343424
Fax: 02890 234912
E-mail: ombudsman@ni-ombudsman.org.uk
Website: www.ni-ombudsman.org.uk
The Food Standards Agency has responsibility for auditing local authority administration of imported food controls in relation to animal feedingstuffs and food not of animal origin. (Audit of imported animal product controls is the role of the State Veterinary Service). When auditing Authorities the Agency verifies that procedures relating to making complaints about the service are available and action is taken to follow up any complaints. However the Agency is not responsible for complaint handling and will not get involved in the substance of complaints or arbitrate in disputes on individual cases. Nonetheless, if there are serious concerns relating to the operation of imported food control services by a particular local authority then the Food Standards Agency may be empowered to intervene and administer the imported food/feed control service direct. This type of intervention is reserved for extreme cases only where there are significant failings identified. Intervention would not normally be considered in respect of isolated complaints about the service.