General Complaints
Step 1 Initial complaint
If you are dissatisfied with any aspect of the service received,
you should initially speak with the member of staff concerned. We
hope that most complaints can be settled quickly and as close to
the source of the problem as possible.
Step 2 If you are not satisfied with the initial response
If you are dissatisfied with the initial response, you should
request details of the head of unit responsible for the member of
staff concerned. You should either write to or telephone the head
of unit in which your complaint originated. You will receive an
acknowledgment within 3 working days and a full response within 10
working days. The head of unit will investigate your complaint
personally.
You may not be sure what information you should include or how
best to set out your complaint. You should set out the facts as
clearly as possible, in a logical order. Remember to include
important details and dates where possible. We can give you
information about how we will process your complaint. Our contact
details are given in the ‘Getting in touch’ section [at the end of
this document/below]. If you need any help, you can contact your
local citizens advice bureau (their contact details are in The
Phone Book or at www.citizensadvice.org.uk).
We will keep all complaints confidential. If you make a
complaint, we will treat you with respect, and we expect you to
treat our staff in the same way.
Step 3 Formal complaint
If you believe your complaint requires further attention, you
should write to the Chief Executive (Jennie Price) at:
Sport England
3rd Floor Victoria House
Bloomsbury Square
London
WC1B 4SE.
You will receive an acknowledgment within 3 working days and a
full response within 0 working days.
Step 4 If you are not satisfied with the formal written
response
If still not satisfied with our response, you can write to your
MP with a request that the matter be referred to the government
ombudsman.
Lottery/Funding Complaints
Introduction
If you want to make a complaint, we have a procedure for you to
use. This leaflet explains the procedure. All the UK-wide and
England lottery distributors use this procedure. Making a complaint
will not affect in any way the level of service you receive from
us, for example if your complaint is with regard to a funding
application your chances of getting a grant from us in the future
will not be compromised.
What can I complain about?
You can complain if you think that:
- ‘maladministration’ has taken place (for example, if we have
delayed, made mistakes in or failed to follow the procedures in our
application process);
- we have failed to give you access to information or have given
you incorrect advice or information;
- we have not treated you politely; or
- we have discriminated against you or not treated you
fairly.
If you complaint is concerning a funding application, we can
only look at your application for funding again if:
- we discover (through dealing with a complaint) that we did not
follow the published procedures for assessing your
application;
- you can show that we have misunderstood a significant part of
your application; or
- you can show that we did not take notice of relevant
information.
What you cannot complain about
You may be disappointed if we turn down your application for
funding, but you cannot use the complaints procedure to appeal
against our decision on giving a grant if we have followed our
decision-making process correctly.
You cannot complain about our published policies or any
government policy. If you have any comments about our policies, or
wish to report a fraud, please send these to our Legal Services
Department.
How do I make an appeal against a funding decision?
Stage one
If you are not happy with the service you have received, contact
the office you first dealt with. They will try to put things right.
We hope that we can settle complaints as quickly as possible in
this way.
Stage two
If you are not satisfied with the response you receive, you can
take this further by making an appeal against a funding decision.
To do this you must advise the person you first dealt with. They
will send you an appeal form for you to set out your reasons for
requesting the appeal. You have grounds for an appeal if:
- you believe that we did not follow the published procedures for
assessing your application;
- you can show that we have misunderstood a significant part of
your application; or
- you can show that we did not take notice of relevant
information.
It is unlikely that we will consider your appeal on any other
grounds. Your appeal will be reviewed by Sport England's appeals
adjudicator who will assess all of the available information in the
light of your reasons for making the appeal. If your appeal is
upheld then your funding application will be re-assessed by a new
funding assessor and a new decision will be made by Sport England
on the outcome of your application. You must accept that if your
appeal is upheld and your application is re-assessed, this does not
mean that an award will be offered automatically. If your appeal is
denied then the appeals adjudicator will explain why.
You must make your appeal within 21 days of receiving your
decision letter. If you cannot make your complaint in writing,
please contact us by ringing 020 7273 1551
When will I hear from you?
Within three working days of receiving your complaint we will
write to or phone you to say that we have received it. We will also
tell you how you can contact the person who is dealing with your
complaint and when you can expect a reply.
You will receive a reply to your complaint within 10 working
days. If we cannot give a full reply in this time, we will tell you
why and when you are likely to receive it. We may ask you to come
to a meeting with us to discuss your complaint in more detail. This
meeting would normally be held within 10 working days of us
receiving your complaint. We would send you a written record of the
meeting and a formal reply to your complaint from our Legal
Services Department.
If your complaint is about the way we have used our powers to
make, refuse or manage funding, you can then move on to Stage 3. If
your complaint is about the way we conduct any other aspect of our
business we will let you know of possible alternatives that may be
open to you. We will tell you in our response to Stage 2 whether
Stage 3 is open to you.
Stage three
If you are not satisfied with the reply, you can refer your
complaint to the independent complaints reviewer (ICR). The ICR is
unbiased and hears both sides of the complaint. The ICR is not part
of our organisation and their investigations and recommendations
are independent. You can ask the ICR to look at your complaint, or
our Legal Services Department can ask them to do this. There is no
charge for using the ICR. The Office of the Independent Complaints
Reviewer will contact you within 5 working days of receipt of your
complaint.
The ICR has the power to decide whether or not to investigate a
complaint, and he or she will explain their reasons if they decide
not to investigate it.
If the ICR investigates your complaint and finds that it is
justified, he or she will recommend ways for us to put things
right, and how to prevent a similar situation in future. The ICR
will report within three months, and usually more quickly. We will
normally make any changes the ICR recommends to our current
procedures as quickly as possible.
The ICR cannot consider complaints that have not gone through
the procedure set out in this document. If you want the ICR to
consider your complaint, you must write to them, or send them an
audio tape or CD, within four weeks of receiving our reply.
The ICR cannot reverse funding decisions or make comments or
changes to our legal responsibilities and policies on awarding
grants. To contact the ICR see ‘Getting in touch’ [at the end
below].
Other ways to make a complaint
The Parliamentary Ombudsman
The Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration (known as the
Parliamentary Ombudsman) investigates complaints by members of the
public who have suffered injustice because of maladministration by
public organisations. The Parliamentary Ombudsman also looks at
complaints about being refused access to official information. By
law, the Ombudsman is independent of the Government and the civil
service, and has wide powers to investigate.
The Ombudsman does not normally investigate complaints if they
have not been through our complaints procedures first. The
Ombudsman’s services are free.
Judicial review
A judicial review is where a judge examines your complaint to
see whether we have behaved illegally. The judge cannot rule that
we must change a funding decision, but he or she can ask us to
reconsider our decision.
Freedom of information
Our publication scheme gives details of what information we make
available to the public as a matter of course. We will extend the
range of this list in the future, whenever it is possible for us to
do so. If you want information that we do not include in our
publication scheme, the Freedom of Information Act 2000 gives you
the right to ask us for it. Under the Act, we must provide you with
the information you ask for unless it is not covered by the Act
(that is, it is ‘exempt’). If the information you want is exempt,
we have to tell you why.
If you do not agree with us, you should follow stages one and
two of the procedures set out in this document. If you are still
not satisfied, you may ask the Information Commissioner to review
our decision.
You can get copies of our freedom of information policy and our
publication scheme here or phoning 020
7273 1551.
To contact the Information Commissioner, see ‘Getting in touch’
at the end of this document.
Your personal information
If you use our complaints procedure, you are agreeing that we
can use any personal information you send us for purposes connected
with your complaint. We may also give your personal information to
other people and organisations if we have to do so by law or if you
have given us permission.
Equal opportunities
We are committed to equal opportunities and take complaints
about discrimination seriously. We may use complaints about
discrimination to review our policies and procedures. This is to
make sure we treat everyone fairly. We may record [the ethnic
background OR information about the ethnic background, sex and
disability OR (for Northern Ireland distributors only) information
about the ethnic background, sex, disability and community
background] of everyone who makes a complaint so that we promote
and maintain our equal opportunities commitment. We will keep all
information confidential.
Comments and suggestions
We welcome comments and suggestions as these can help us improve
our services. Please send any comments or suggestions to the Legal
Services Team. The contact details are given in ‘Getting in touch’
at the end of this document.
Getting in touch
Sport England
3rd Floor Victoria House
Bloomsbury Square
London
WC1B 4SE
Contact us
If you want to comment on any government policy on
sport, contact:
Department for Culture, Media and Sport
2–4 Cockspur Street
London
SW1Y 5DH
Website: www.culture.gov.uk
Phone: 020 7211 6000 (general enquiries)
E-mail: enquiries@culture.gsi.gov.uk
Other contacts
Independent Complaints Reviewer
c/o Lottery Forum
7 Holbein Place
London
SW1W 8NR
Phone: 020 7591 6190
Textphone: 020 7591 6255
You can get an explanatory leaflet about the Ombudsman
from:
Office of the Parliamentary Commissioner for
Administration
Millbank Tower
Millbank
London
SW1P 4QP
Helpline: 0845 015 4033
Phone: 020 7217 4163
Fax: 020 7217 4000
Textphone: 020 7217 4066
E-mail: opca.enquiries@ombudsman.gsi.gov.uk
The Information Commissioner
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Phone: 01625 545 700
Fax: 01625 524 510
E-mail: mail@ico.gsi.gov.uk