Complaints procedure

Our commitment

The Met Office is committed to providing a quality service to all our customers.

In order to help us do that we would ask that you give us feedback where we have failed to meet your expectations.

We take all complaints seriously and use the information to improve our service.

When handling complaints, we will:

• Be courteous, respectful and fair- we ask that our staff are given the same respect and courtesy while they are trying to resolve your complaint
• Treat your complaint in confidence
• Handle complaints promptly – we aim to acknowledge complaints received via email, our website or telephone within 24 hours and complaints received via post within 5 days from receipt. We aim to respond to all complaints within 20 working days of receipt.

How to complain

Before contacting us, please check if our guides can help. You can make a complaint by email, post, telephone or via our website.

Telephone

0370 900 0100

Email address

[email protected]

Postal address

Met Office

Fitzroy Road

Exeter

Devon

EX1 3PB

United Kingdom

We endeavour to reply to all feedback that we receive, however, if you require a formal response to your case please make it clear in your correspondence that you wish to make a complaint.

To process your complaint as quickly as possible we will require you to provide the following information:

• Your contact details including telephone number and email address
• Information specific to the complaint
• How this has impacted you
• Any accessibility issues you may have so that we can tailor our response accordingly

The Met Office is available 24/7 and our trained staff can often resolve issues and respond to queries quickly and satisfactorily. This is the first opportunity for us to respond to your complaint and most complaints can be dealt with at this stage.

If the complaint requires investigation it will be passed onto the relevant department.

We aim to respond to you within 20 working days. When we can’t do this, we will contact you to update you on the progress and give an expected date when you will receive our response.

Escalation

If you are not satisfied with the response you receive, you can request that your complaint is escalated to the relevant Director.

Right to Appeal

The Met Office aims to get things right first time, however, if you have gone through our complaints procedure and are still dissatisfied with our decision you can contact your MP and ask them to refer your complaint to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO). The PHSO will expect you to have gone through our complaints process before escalation to them.

If your complaint is regarding a request under the Freedom of Information Act (FOI), Environmental Information Regulations (EIR), Data Protection Act (DPA) or Reuse of Public Sector Information Regulations (RoPSI), you can refer your case to the Information Commissioner’s Office.