Companies Investigation Branch

How to Complain

If, having looked at the information on this website, you feel that you have a complaint against a company you would like us to consider, you can make a complaint by completing the online Complaint Form on this Website.

We also accept complaints by e-mail or post, but you will find the Complaint Form simple to complete and it gives us the best start.

Although we do have a general enquiry telephone number, we cannot normally accept complaints by telephone (see “Contact Us” for further details). The telephone number is given so that we can assist you in deciding whether to submit a complaint, if you are unsure, but not to discuss the merits of your complaint.

Online Complaints Form

Please provide as much of the information asked for as you can, as this will give us the best start to considering your complaint and where we might go for further information.

When you have completed the form, click on the submit button. The following will happen automatically:-

We will instantly receive a copy of your complaint.
You will receive immediate confirmation that the complaint has been received.
You will receive an immediate* acknowledgement by e-mail (provided you have entered your e-mail address correctly) together with a copy of the completed complaint form and a unique reference number.

* There is currently a technical problem with automated acknowledgements which we are working to resolve. In the meantime, you will receive an acknowledgement by e‑mail within 3 working days.

By Post or E-mail (see “Contact Us”)

If you decide not to use the online complaint form, it would help if you could provide the same basic information as required on our complaint form. Otherwise, we will only have to ask for it later. This could delay consideration of your complaint.

Supporting Documentation

You may have a number of documents that you feel support your complaint. This should not prevent you from using the online complaint form or make you feel that you must submit your complaint by post. The complaint form asks you to state what information you have, and our staff will call for relevant information when they consider your complaint. In fact, if your concerns are more appropriate for another public body, there may be no benefit (and unnecessary effort on your part) in sending the documents to us.

Can I complain anonymously?

You can, but there is no real benefit in doing so. We will treat any information you provide in strictest confidence. In particular, if we do investigate, we do not tell the company who has made the complaint or what we are looking at. If we decide not to investigate, we do not tell the company that a complaint has been received.

If your concerns are more appropriate for another public body, we would normally pass on your complaint. However, if you do not wish us to do so, please make that clear in your complaint.

Also, if you complain anonymously, we will not be able to obtain further information from you or discuss your concerns, and this could reduce the prospect of an investigation being commenced (by us or any other body).

Finally, …

Please remember that we are unable to tell you whether or not we are investigating a particular company, and by law we are prevented from providing you with information which we may have obtained from our investigations (unless you are one of the public bodies to whom information can be disclosed).

Other Information