How to complain to Highways England
The following information is compiled from details taken from Highways England’s website.
Step 1 – Local resolution
Contact Highways England’s Customer Contact Centre.
Set out your complaint clearly including dates and any other details and send it to Highways England at:-
By post:
Highways England
National Traffic Operations Centre
3 Ridgeway
Quinton Business Park
Birmingham
B32 1AF
By email: info@highwaysengland.co.uk
By phone: 0300 123 5000 (local rate call)
If their customer contact centre can’t provide an answer or you aren’t happy with their initial response, they’ll ask the relevant area of their business to investigate and respond.
Unreasonable Complaints
Note that Highways England have an Unreasonable Complaints Policy which reads as follows:
If a complaint becomes unreasonable we may require you to contact us in a particular way. We’ll let you know if we believe your complaint is unreasonable – usually if you:
- refuse to follow our complaints procedure
- refuse to be specific or continually change the basis of your complaint
- make excessive demands on staff resource
- submit repeated complaints on the same issue
- use abusive language
Step 2 – Director Review
If you’re unhappy with the response provided by the relevant business area of Highways England, you can ask for your complaint to be reviewed and investigated by a Highways England Director.
They will aim to send a full response within 15 working days of the date of escalation.
Jim O’Sullivan, Chief Executive
Highways England
Bridge House
1 Walnut Tree Close
Guildford
Surrey
GU1 4LZ
Step 3 – Independent review
If you are not happy with the response after writing to the Chief Executive of Highways England, you can ask them to refer your complaint to the Department for Transport’s Independent Complaints Assessor (ICA).
The ICA can look at complaints about:
- bias or discrimination
- unfair treatment
- poor or misleading advice
- failure to give information
- mistakes
- unreasonable delays
- poor administration
- inappropriate staff behaviour
Find out more information about what the ICAs cover and how to complain to them.
It is important to note that the ICA does not provide their general contact information. It’s important to go through DfT, or the agency or body you have been dealing with so they can try to resolve the matter first.
Step 4
If you think they have not done everything possible to resolve your complaint, you can also ask a Member of Parliament to contact them on your behalf, or ask them to refer your complaint to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO).
The PHSO will expect you to have tried to resolve your complaint at the earlier stages of our complaints procedure before they look into it.