All prisoners sentenced and remand, men and women, adults and young prisoners can complain to us.

If you have had a Pre-Sentence Report written about you or you are on supervision or licence, you can also complain to us about the way you have been treated by the National Probation Service.

First of all, you should use the Prison or Probation Service's complaints system to try and deal with the problem.

	Talk to staff on the wing or in your Probation Office and see if they can sort it out out informally.
	If they can't help, make a formal complaint (in prison by completing a complaint form; on probation by writing to the Chief Officer).
	If that does not work, put in an appeal (on probation, by writing to the Area Probation Board).

If you are not satisfied with the reply you get, you can complain to us, but you must do this within one month of receiving your reply. If you have not had a reply within six weeks you can still complain to us.

Informal complaint to staff

Formal complaint

Appeal

Complaint to PPO

Fill in our form or, if you prefer, just write to us with details of your complaint. We only need brief details at first but it helps if you send copies of originals and your complaint appeal. We will contact you if we need any extra information.

If you are in prison and you don't want anybody to read your letter before it leaves the prison you should write using Confidential Access. The prison will pay the postage whether you use the form or write us a letter.

If you have a problem reading or writing, ask a friend or relative to help.

We will gather information about your complaint from you, the Prison Service or National Probation Service and anyone else we think might be able to help. We will then try to settle your complaint in one of the following ways:

	Local resolution- This means trying to find a solution that you and the Prison or Area Probation Board can both agree on. This is often the quickest way to deal with the complaint.
	A brief report or letter- We use this when the two sides cannot agree. It can also be done quickly.
	A full report- We also use this when the two sides cannot agree. It is more detailed than the brief report and takes longer to write.

We aim to deal with your complaint in one of these three ways within 12 weeks of starting the investigation, although unfortunately we currently face a backlog of complaints and there are some delays. If we agree with your complaint, the report will also include a recommendation to the Prison Service or National Probation Service about what they should do to put things right.

Phone: 020 7035 2876

Write to:

Prisons and Probation Ombudsman
Ashley House
2 Monck Street
London
SW1P 2BQ

email: mail@ppo.gsi.gov.uk