Complaints procedure
Source: gov.uk (2025-11-04)

How to complain or give other feedback about the Office of the Public Guardian.

Your feedback is important to us

The Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) is committed to providing a high-quality service to everyone we deal with.

To do that, we need you to give us any comments you have about our service, to tell us when we get things wrong and when we get things right.

How we deal with your complaints

We aim to respond within 10 working days, however, if we need longer to investigate we will contact you to let you know this.

OPG defines a complaint as ‘an expression of dissatisfaction that requires action and/or a response’.

What you’ll need to tell us

When you contact us, please give as much information as you can to help us understand and investigate your complaint, including:

your full name, address and contact telephone number

your reference number if you have one

what went wrong

when it happened

who you dealt with

what effect our actions had on you

how you’d like us to resolve the matter

Complaints we cannot handle

Court of Protection and the High Court

If you want to complain about how the Court of Protection or the High Court has handled your case, you must contact the court (https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/hm-courts-and-tribunals-service/about/complaints-procedure).

The Court of Protection, the High Court and OPG are different organisations.

The Court of Protection appoints deputies and the High Court appoints guardians. OPG supervises deputies and guardians once they’ve been appointed by the courts.

OPG deals with complaints about its services, not about the High Court or the Court of Protection’s decisions or processes.

Legal advice or services

We cannot deal with complaints about legal advice or services. The Solicitors Regulation Authority (https://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/problems/report-solicitor/unhappy/) may be able to help you.

Report a concern about an attorney, deputy or guardian

Contact OPG if you’re concerned (https://www.gov.uk/report-concern-about-attorney-deputy) about the actions of an attorney, deputy or a guardian.

Level of supervision (deputies)

If you’re unhappy with your level of supervision, you can ask for a review. Follow the instructions on the letter we sent you about your supervision level.

How to complain

Tell us about your complaint by calling, emailing or writing.
- Phone: xx-xxxx-xxxx
- Calling from outside the UK: xx-xxxx-xxxx
- Relay UK (if you cannot hear or speak on the phone): 18001 0300 123 1300
- Email: xxx@xxx.xx (mailto:xxx@xxx.xx)
Office of the Public GuardianPO Box 16185BirminghamB2 2WH

If you’re not satisfied

If you’re not happy with what we tell you, you can write to OPG’s chief executive. A member of our senior leadership team will look at how your complaint was handled and the outcome.

In your letter, we need you to do the following:

Explain why you’re unhappy with the initial reply and what issues remain unanswered.

Suggest how the situation should be remedied.

Provide us with further information in support of unresolved issues (where requested).

If you’re not satisfied with the chief executive’s response, contact your MP (https://www.parliament.uk/get-involved/contact-an-mp-or-lord/contact-your-mp/) to refer the complaint to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (http://www.ombudsman.org.uk/).

You must go through all these steps in OPG’s complaints procedure before your complaint can be referred to the ombudsman.

Resolving the matter

If we’ve made a mistake, we’ll:
- apologise
- explain what happened
- put things right as quickly as we can
We’ll also make sure that we learn lessons from customer feedback and make improvements where necessary.