General Register Office

If you have a complaint about how we handled your enquiry or case, please contact us.

By email or through our online complaints form

If your complaint relates to a certificate which you have ordered from the General Register Office (GRO), you can use our online complaints form to send us a mesage.
When you submit this form, it will generate an email to us with the details you have supplied.

If your complaint relates to any other aspect of GRO's work apart from certificates, please email the details of your complaint to gro.communications@ips.gsi.gov.uk

By phone

+44 (0)300 123 1837
Monday to Friday: 8am - 8pm
Saturday: 9am - 4pm

Our contact centre staff will do their utmost to put things right. If we cannot give you an immediate answer, we will agree a convenient time to call you back, as we may need to arrange for someone with more detailed knowledge to speak to you.

In writing

Customer service manager
Room E101
General Register Office
Identity and Passport Service
Trafalgar Road
Southport
PR8 2HH

Please provide:

• full details of the problem
• a reference number you have already have from us if this is an ongoing case or a certificate order (this is usually found in the top right hand corner of any letter we have sent you or provided at the time of ordering a certificate)
• contact details (name, address, postcode, day and evening phone numbers, and an email address or fax number if you have these)

When we get your complaint we will:

• let you know we have received it (if it was a letter or email)
• investigate your complaint
• respond to you within two weeks, either with a full reply or to let you know what is happening if we have not finished our investigation

Please remember that while we always aim to provide the best possible service, we have to work within the provisions set out in the legislation covering the work of our office.
Sometimes it may be that we simply cannot meet your wishes because the relevant piece of legislation does not allow it. In those circumstances, we shall always aim to explain to you why we feel unable to act further.

Further action

If you have written to or phoned us and are not satisfied with our response, please write to, or email:

Communications manager, Room 109
General Register Office
Identity and Passport Service
Trafalgar Road
Southport
PR8 2HH

Email: gro.communications@ips.gsi.gov.uk

If after writing to the communciations manager, you are still dissatisfied, you may ask your member of Parliament (MP) to raise the matter with the Registrar General or the Home Office minister responsible for the General Register Office.

If you are still not satisfied, you can ask your MP to request an investigation by the parliamentary commissioner for administration (the Ombudsman).
The Ombudsman's role is to investigate complaints by members of the public about the way government departments and their executive agencies have treated them.
You can only request an investigation through your MP.

Compensation

We realise that sometimes our mistakes may cause you expense or financial loss. In these cases, you should follow the instructions in step one and write us a letter. With the letter you should send any documents that prove your claim. We only normally offer compensation for financial loss as a result of delays in our guaranteed services, for example, priority certificate orders or certificates ordered by special delivery, where these have not been despatched on the due date.