Feedback and complaints principles
Our commitment
At IPSA, we aim to provide a seamless and first-class regulatory service, enabling MPs and their staff to focus on what really matters: improving lives for their constituents. We also aim to support trust in wider democracy by being transparent with the public in how taxpayer funding is used by MPs and how we reach decisions.
If you have ideas to help us improve, we want to hear from you. Your feedback helps us improve and deliver better service. Similarly, while we aim to get things right first time, mistakes can be made and when they are, we will learn from them.
Our approach is guided by our values and this guidance explains how you can share feedback with us or raise concerns, how we will handle it and what you can expect from us.
How to share feedback or raise a concern
If you are an MP or MP staff member, talk to your account manager or payroll officer first.
Our account managers and payroll officers are best placed to help quickly, are empowered to make proportionate, balanced and reasonable decisions and are ultimately guided by both our values and our commitment explained above.
If you are a member of the public – or an MP or staff member who would rather share views with us in writing – email us at feedback@theipsa.org.uk.
Feedback can include:
Suggestions for improvement
When something hasn’t gone smoothly
Positive experiences
Feedback – what happens next?
We’ll listen, acknowledge your concerns and aim to resolve them promptly.
If a mistake has been made, we’ll apologise and put it right. We’ll explain decisions clearly and learn from issues to prevent them happening again. We’ll also learn from positive experiences shared with us, aiming to replicate this in all future service and we’ll give full and open-minded consideration to suggestions for improvement.
Where your feedback is about a decision we have made on a funding request, you can ask for this to be reviewed by someone independent of the original decision – see guidance.
Formal complaints
If you believe a significant error has occurred, you are unhappy with how we handled something or believe this has not been resolved satisfactorily by your account manager or payroll officer and wish to formally complaint, you can:
Advise your account manager or payroll officer, who will record your concerns and desired outcome and pass to the relevant colleague to investigate.
Email feedback@theipsa.org.uk with details of what happened and what you’d like us to review.
Where complaints are about our services, this will be reviewed by someone independent of your experience to ensure a fair investigation and outcome.
We will acknowledge your complaint promptly and may reach out seeking more information or to discuss the complaint further. In all instances we will keep you updated throughout and aim to respond fully as quickly as possible to explain our decision and, where applicable, how we intend to put matters right.
Compliance Officer
An MP or member of the public can ask the Compliance Officer – who is independent from IPSA – to review certain decisions, including:
Decisions on funding requests
Decisions around requested repayments
Decisions made by our contingency panel
The Compliance Officer is unable to review complaints about IPSA’s services. IPSA must take action to implement the outcomes of Compliance Officer investigations. Find out more about the Compliance Officer.
Why your feedback matters
We record and analyse feedback and complaints to improve our services. We share insights with the IPSA leadership team and our board, and record formal complaints in our annual accounts as part of our transparency responsibilities.