If we cannot help

​​We can only look at complaints about charities if they are about what a charity has done on behalf of a government department or the NHS in England.

Otherwise you should take complaints about charities to:

• the Charity Commission for complaints about charities in England and Wales
• the Scottish Charity Regulator for complaints about charities in Scotland
• the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland for complaints about charities in Northern Ireland.

If your complaint is about the way you have been asked for donations or how fundraisers have behaved in England, the Fundraising Regulator may also be able to help.

​Generally, we cannot look at complaints about commercial companies you have bought goods or services from. This includes shops, builders, traders and internet sites.

You should contact one of the following organisations to tell you how to take your complaint forward.

Which?

The Which? website has lots of information about consumer issues. It also has information about how to use ombudsman services.

Citizens Advice

The Citizens Advice website has information about your rights in areas such as benefits, housing, employment, debt, consumer and legal issues. The Citizens Advice service helps people sort out legal, money and other problems by providing free, independent and confidential advice, and by influencing policymakers.

Trading Standards

Your local Trading Standards office can give you advice and guidance if you are in dispute with goods and services providers.

We can look at a court's administrative actions, but we cannot look at the actions, conduct or decisions of judges or how they are appointed.

To complain about:

• a court judge, contact the Judicial Conduct Investigations Office
• a tribunal judge, contact the Judicial Conduct Investigations Office
• a magistrate, contact the advisory committee for the area the court is in.

To complain about the process for appointing a judge, contact:

• the Judicial Appointments and Conduct Ombudsman for appointments in England and Wales
• the Judicial Appointments Board for appointments in Scotland
• the Northern Ireland Judicial Appointments Commission for appointments in Northern Ireland. 

If you're still not sure if we can look at your complaint about a court, call us on 0345 015 4033 to discuss your case.

We cannot look at complaints about schools, further education institutions or universities. We can look at the government departments responsible for education, but this is often limited to how they handle complaints.

A school

You should complain to the school first. If you're unhappy with its response and the school is publicly funded, you can raise your complaint with the Department for Education. If the school is privately funded, you can complain to the Independent Schools Inspectorate.

A further education college

You should complain to the college first and complete its complaints process. If you're still unhappy, you can complain to the Department for Education about how your complaint was handled.

A university

You should complain to the university first through its complaints process.

If you're unhappy with its response, the next steps depend on where the university is based.

If the university is based in England or Wales:

• if you are a current or former student, you can raise your concerns with the Office of the Independent Adjudicator.
• if you are a member of the public, the university should be able to tell you which organisation you need to complain to.

If the university is based in Scotland, you can raise your concerns with the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman.

If you're still not sure if we can look into your complaint, call us on 0345 015 4033 to discuss your case.

​We cannot look at complaints about financial services. You should contact the following organisations for advice.

For banking, insurance and other financial products

The Financial Ombudsman Service exists to sort out disputes between consumers and financial services including:

• banking
• credit cards and store cards
• financial advice
• hire purchase and pawnbroking
• insurance
• loans and credit
• money transfer
• mortgages
• pensions
• savings and investments
• stocks, shares, unit trusts and bonds.

You can call the service on 0300 123 9123 or email complaint.info@financial-ombudsman.org.uk.

Pensions

The Money and Pensions Service gives free information and advice about workplace and personal pensions.

The Pensions Ombudsman investigates and resolves complaints and disputes about the way that pension schemes are run. It will normally expect you to have asked The Pensions Advisory Service for help first. You can call the Pensions Ombudsman on 020 7630 2200 or email enquiries@pensions-ombudsman.org.uk.

​We cannot look at complaints about utility companies such as gas, electricity and water companies.

The following organisations will be able to tell you how to take your complaint forward.

Citizens Advice

The Citizens Advice website has information about dealing with problems with energy and water companies.

For gas and electricity

Energy Ombudsman

The Energy Ombudsman is approved by the energy regulator Ofgem to handle disputes between energy companies and their customers.

For water

Consumer Council for Water

Contact the Consumer Council for Water, which is the independent representative of household and business water consumers in England and Wales.

If you're unhappy with how the Consumer Council for Water has handled your complaint, we may be able to look into it. Call us on 0345 015 4033 for help and advice.

We cannot look at complaints about public or privately funded housing.

Local authority housing

If you want to complain about housing that is funded by a local authority, you should complain to your local council first. If you're still unhappy when you get its response, you can take your complaint to:

• the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman for homes in England
• the Welsh Public Services Ombudsman for homes in Wales
• the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman for homes in Scotland
• the Northern Ireland Ombudsman for homes in Northern Ireland.

Private housing

If you privately rent your property, you should raise your complaint with your landlord or letting agency first. If you're unable to reach an agreement on how to resolve your complaint, your local council may be able to help you.

Letting agencies and property management companies must belong to a government-approved scheme for dealing with complaints. There are two approved schemes. You should check which of these your landlord is covered by and contact them:

• The Property Ombudsman
• The Property Redress Scheme.

The Housing Ombudsman may also be able to help if you're a tenant or leaseholder and have a dispute with your landlord (if they are a social landlord or a voluntary member of their scheme).

We cannot look at complaints about lawyers and solicitors, but there are organisations that may be able to help.

Lawyers and solicitors

Contact the following organisations for advice about a complaint about lawyers and solicitors:

• the Legal Ombudsman for complaints about legal services
• Legal Choices for complaints about lawyers
• the Solicitors Regulation Authority for complaints about solicitors.

Judges

For complaints about judges, contact the Judicial Appointments and Conduct Ombudsman.

We cannot look at complaints about local councils.

England

The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO) will be able to tell you how to take forward your complaint about council matters such as housing, planning, education and social care.

Scotland

The Scottish Public Services Ombudsman (SPSO) is the final stage for complaints about councils, the National Health Service, housing associations, colleges and universities, prisons, most water providers, the Scottish Government and its agencies and departments, and most Scottish authorities.

Wales

The Public Services Ombudsman for Wales looks into complaints about public services and independent care providers in Wales. It can also investigate whether members of local government organisations have broken their authority's code of conduct.

Northern Ireland

The Northern Ireland Ombudsman deals with complaints about poor administration in Northern Ireland. It can also look into whether government departments and public organisations have applied rules wrongly.

We cannot look at complaints about Members of Parliament (MPs), unless they are government ministers carrying out the administrative work of their departments.

The Office of the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards can consider complaints about breaches of the Code of Conduct or the Guide to the Rules for MPs.

For all other complaints about MPs, contact the chair of their political party. You can find links to all of the political parties that are represented in Parliament on the UK Parliament website.

We cannot usually look at complaints about care and treatment you received under the Mental Health Act. For example, a decision to detain you or give you medication without your consent.

If your complaint is about something like this, contact the Care Quality Commission to see if it can look into it.

We can consider complaints about the general care and treatment you received while under detention. For example, if a staff member was rude or there was a decision to place you in seclusion or transfer you to another hospital.

Call us on 0345 015 4033 if you're not sure about this.

We cannot look at complaints against the police.

If you have been a victim of crime in England or Wales, we may be able to look at your complaint under the Victims' Code.

For complaints about the police, please contact:

• Independent Office for Police Conduct for complaints about the police in England and Wales
• Police Investigations and Review Commissioner for complaints about the police in Scotland
• Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland for complaints about the police in Northern Ireland.

If you're still not sure if we can look into your complaint, call us on 0345 015 4033 to discuss your case.

​We cannot normally look at complaints about postal services.

Contact the following organisations that will be able to tell you how to take your complaint forward.

Postal Redress Service

The Postal Redress Service is an independent organisation that can resolve disputes between postal operators and their customers when operators have not sorted out the complaints through their own processes.

Ofcom

Ofcom does not investigate individual complaints about postal operators, but its website has information on how to complain about postal services.

If you're unhappy with how Ofcom handles your complaint, we may be able to look into it. If your complaint is about Ofcom and you need help or advice, call us on 0345 015 4033.

Citizens Advice

The Citizens Advice website has information that may help you sort out problems with postal services.

By law, we cannot look into complaints about privately funded healthcare services. This includes care provided by private patient units in NHS trusts.

Mixed private and NHS care

We can look at complaints about healthcare services provided in a private hospital if the NHS paid for it.

We can also look at complaints about NHS-funded healthcare services that privately funded patients get in an NHS hospital.

Some NHS trusts have private patient units in their hospitals. We cannot look at complaints about care provided in these units unless the NHS paid for it.

If you think your treatment falls into this category, you will need to complete the NHS complaints process before we can look at your complaint. If you're not sure about this, call us on 0345 015 4033.

Private healthcare only

If you have a complaint only about privately funded healthcare services, you should complain to the healthcare provider first.

If you are still unhappy when it has replied to your complaint, you may be able to go to the Independent Sector Complaints Adjudication Service (ISCAS). It has a Complaints Code of Practice that includes an independent adjudication service (a service to help sort out disputes) as the final stage of the complaint process.

Most independent healthcare providers and some NHS trust private patient units subscribe to the ISCAS service. The service is managed by the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution (CEDR). You can find out whether the organisation you have a complaint about is a subscriber and get the complaint forms on the ISCAS website.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) will take note of your complaint and use it as part of its inspection process if appropriate. The CQC is the independent regulator of health and adult social care in England. It inspects NHS organisations and independent providers. It does not have an active role in dealing with complaints.

Private dental or eye care

• If your complaint is about privately funded dental care, contact the Dental Complaints Service.
• If your complaint is about private eye treatment, contact the Optical Consumer Complaints Service.

​We cannot look at complaints about social care.

England

Contact the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman for information on how to take your complaint forward.

Social care describes the activities, services and relationships that help people stay active, healthy and, where possible, independent. It's about helping people to do day-to-day things like:

• washing and dressing
• working
• cooking
• shopping
• caring for a family
• living in their home.

It also includes providing residential care for people who cannot live independently.

We can consider complaints jointly with the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman if they are about getting both health and social care funded by the NHS or local councils in England. You can complain to either ombudsman and we will consider whether it might be appropriate to do a joint investigation. If your complaint involves both health and social care, call us for advice on 0345 015 4033.

You can also contact the Care Quality Commission (CQC), which is the independent regulator of health and adult social care in England. The CQC monitors, inspects and regulates health and care services to make sure they meet quality and safety standards, but it does not resolve individual complaints.

Scotland

For complaints about social care in Scotland, contact:

• the Care Inspectorate and
• the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman.

Wales

For complaints about social care in Wales, contact:

• the Social Care Wales and
• the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales.

Northern Ireland

For complaints about social care in Northern Ireland, contact:

• the Health and Social Care Board and
• the Northern Ireland Ombudsman.

​We cannot look at complaints about telecommunications companies or internet service providers.

Your telephone or internet provider will be covered by one of the organisations below. They should tell you which one you should approach to take your complaint forward.

Communications Ombudsman

The Communications Ombudsman may be able to help if you have an unresolved complaint about your internet or telephone provider. It handles disputes between consumers and communication companies that are signed up to its scheme.

Communications and Internet Services Adjudication Scheme (CISAS)

CISAS is an independent adjudication service. It tries to sort out disputes between consumers and communications providers.

Office of Communications (Ofcom)

Ofcom is the regulator for the UK communications industries. It has responsibilities across television, radio, telecommunications and wireless communication services.

We cannot look at complaints about television, radio, newspapers and advertising.

Contact the following organisations which will tell you how to take your complaint forward.

For television and radio

Office of Communications (Ofcom)

Ofcom is the regulator for the UK communications industries. It has responsibilities across television, radio, telecommunications and wireless communications services.

For newspapers

IPSO

IPSO is the independent regulator for the UK digital and print news industry.

For advertising

Advertising Standards Authority

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) is an independent body set up by the advertising industry to police the rules set out in the advertising codes.