Home Office
The Independent Examiner of Complaints (IEC) is a new independent complaint investigation service for people who are unhappy with the Home Offices final response to a complaint.
Find out about the IEC
The Independent Examiner of Complaints is Moi Ali. Moi has a background in independent complaints review. Previously she served as:
- chair of the Independent Complaints Review Panel at Postwatch
- Scotlands first Judicial Complaints Reviewer
- a review body member in the Judicial Conduct Investigations Office
She has also had a role in overseeing complaints about senior police officers. For the last 4 years she has been the Independent Assessor of Complaints for the Crown Prosecution Service and she continues in that part-time role.
Moi is passionate about providing a genuinely independent service, and about helping organisations to identify learning and wider lessons from complaints in order to improve their service.
Her approach is to understand the complainant journey and perspective, and to support staff to provide a complainant-centric service, while maintaining her impartiality.
The role of the IEC
The IEC is not a civil servant or Home Office employee. They are an independent post holder, appointed under contract. This allows them to make fully independent decisions based on the merits of each complaint on a case-by-case basis.
The Office for the Independent Examiner of Complaints reviews complaints about the Home Office for people who are unhappy with how their complaint has been handled.
We will look at whether the Home Office has worked in-line with its own procedures and guidance .
When to contact us
We can only look at your complaint if:
- you have received a final response to your complaint, that explains you can bring it to the Office for the IEC if you are unhappy with the outcome
- you contact us within three months of receiving the final complaint response
Complaints we can look at
We look at complaints about these business areas:
- UK Visas and Immigration
- Immigration Enforcement
- Border Force
- Detention and Escorting Service
- HM Passport Office
Your complaint may be about
- a delay or error
- poor service, advice, or information
- a failure to follow the correct procedures
Complaints we cannot look at
We are unable to look at complaints:
- about Home Office decisions that carry review or appeal rights
- about Home Office policy or legislation
- that are, or have been investigated by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman
- about how the Home Office has acted as an employer
- that are, or have been the subject of judicial review or other court proceedings
- which fall under the remit of the Windrush Compensation Scheme
- about serious misconduct which are being reviewed by the Professional Standards Unit
- about the Home Offices compliance with data protection regulations
How to make a complaint
You can make a complaint to the Office for the Independent Examiner of Complaints if you are unhappy with the Home Offices final response to your complaint.
You can download this form and email it to us or print it and post it back to us.
Or you can complain to us in writing or by phone using the contact details below.
Email: iec@homeoffice.gov.uk
Home Office
Office for the Independent Examiner of Complaints
PO Box
Sheffield
S2 9JD
Telephone: 0300 071 5679 between the hours of 9am and 5pm, Monday to Friday.
If you have not yet made a complaint to the relevant business area, you can do so using the below links:
- UK Visas and Immigration
- Immigration Enforcement
- Border Force
- Detention and Escorting Service DEScomplaints@homeoffice.gov.uk
- HM Passport Office
How we will handle your complaint
The Office for the Independent Examiner of Complaints (IEC) has a clear process for handling your complaint.
Registering your complaint
When we receive your complaint, our Business Support Team will:
- register your complaint
- decide if we can look at your complaint
We may ask you for more information. This may include a copy of the businesss final response to your complaint.
If we cannot look at your complaint, we will let you know why, within 5 working days of receiving your complaint.
If you have not yet made a complaint to the relevant business area, you can do so by contacting them .
If you have received a final response to your complaint, we will contact you within 5 working days of receiving your complaint to:
- agree the elements of complaint we can look at
- ask what you think needs to be done to put things right
- ask you to explain how any service failures have affected you
Resolving your complaint
Once the elements of complaint have been agreed with you, we may try to resolve your complaint using the information you have given us.
This may include asking the business to take action to put matters right.
We will only resolve a complaint if you agree the action the business has agreed to take puts matters right for you. If so, we will send you a resolution closure letter.
We aim to complete the cases that can be resolved within 20 working days of you agreeing the elements of the complaint.
If we cannot resolve your complaint, we will ask you and the business for more information.
Once we have all the information we need, your complaint will be ready to allocate to an investigator. All complaints are allocated in strict date order.
We will contact you to let you know when your complaint has been allocated to an investigator.
Settling your complaint
Once we have looked at all the information provided by you and the business, we may try and settle your complaint if it is clear what wen