How to escalate a complaint about government

When a public body has handled something badly, its own complaints process comes first. After that there are independent routes that can look again, and public routes that make the government answer.

Complain to the department, then ask your MP

Government departments run their own complaints process first. The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, for example, has two stages; if you are still dissatisfied after both, you can ask your MP to take your complaint to the independent Public Service Ombudsman, which is free to use. ¹

There is a time limit: the department says you need to get your complaint to your MP within 12 months of when you became aware of the issue. ¹

Start or sign a petition

E-petitions on the UK Parliament petitions site stay open for six months. A petition that gets 10,000 signatures gets a response from the UK Government, written by the department responsible and published on the petition's page. ²

All petitions that get 100,000 signatures are considered for debate by the Petitions Committee and are usually debated. The debates are general debates and do not end with a vote on whether to do what the petition asks. ²

Sources

gov.uk/government/organisations/ministry-of-housing-communities-local-government/about/complaints-procedure, read 4 November 2026 · saved copy
petition.parliament.uk/help, read 4 November 2026 · saved copy

More ways to hold power to account

This guide explains the rules; it is not legal advice. Report an error.