How to make a complaint
Forestry England is committed to giving good customer service and welcomes hearing from our customer to allow us to learn and improve the way we operate or the services we provide.
We recognise that it may sometimes be necessary to complain if things have gone wrong or you’re dissatisfied with our service, you can follow the three-stage process set out below.
We are happy to receive complaints by email, post, or telephone. If you're not able to put your complaint in writing, you can contact us by phone, where your contact details and information regarding your complaint will be taken and passed on to the relevant team to respond.
What to include in your complaint
For us to deal with your complaint you will need to tell us the following information:
- your full name and preferred contact details.
- as much details as possible about the complaint.
Complaint process stage one
If your complaint relates to a forest district, please contact the local forest office.
If your complaint relates to either a ticketed event (including Forest Live) or Forestry England Membership, please direct this to customerrelations@forestryengland.uk or call 0300 068 0400.
If your complaint relates to parking please direct this to parking@forestryengland.uk.
For all other complaints, please direct these to enquiries@forestryengland.uk or call 0300 067 4000
Complaint process stage two
If you received a response from your stage one complaint and are not satisfied, please make your second-stage complaint to the Forest Management Director from the district that responded to you.
If your complaint was responded to by a national team, please make your second-stage complaint to that team. You will receive a response from the relevant senior manager.
Complaint process stage three - Forestry England Chief Executive
If our second response does not fully address your concerns, you can move to the final stage of our complaints procedure.
All stage three complaints should be sent to the Chief Executive Mike Seddon
at enquiries@forestryengland.uk, by calling 0300 067 4000 or in writing to:
CEO's Office,
Forestry England,
620 Bristol Business Park,
Coldharbour Lane,
Bristol
BS16 1EJ
A complaint against the Forestry England Chief Executive should be sent to Richard Stanford, Forestry Commission Chief Executive at the above address or commissioners@forestrycommission.gov.uk
Our service standard
We aim to:
- treat all complaints seriously and investigate your complaint thoroughly and fairly.
- try to put things right as quickly as possible if we are at fault – if not, we’ll give you a full explanation.
- learn from complaints and take action to improve our services.
- acknowledge all written complaints within five days and let you know who is handling the matter and how to contact them.
- respond, in full, within 20 working days of receiving complaints.
- respond to complaints by letter or email.
If it is not possible to give you a full reply within 20 working days, for example if your complaint requires more detailed investigation, we will contact you to advise what is being done and when you can expect a full response.
If you remain unhappy with our actions and you have exhausted our internal three-stage complaints process, you may ask your Member of Parliament (MP) to request that the Independent Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (the Ombudsman) investigates your complaint and/or the way it has been handled.
More information about the role of the Ombudsman and how to make a complaint can be obtained directly from the Ombudsman.
Our Service charter sets out our expectations of the people we engage with and what customers can expect from us.
Our Position statement: managing inappropriate or unacceptable behaviour sets out how we will deal with inappropriate and unacceptable behaviour professionally, consistently, and fairly.