Make a complaint to the Independent Examiner of Complaints

The Independent Examiner of Complaints (IEC) is a new independent complaint investigation service for people who are unhappy with the Home Office’s final response to a complaint.

About the Independent Examiner of Complaints

The Independent Examiner of Complaints is Moi Ali. Moi has a background in the independent review of complaints. Previously she served as:

She has also had a role in overseeing complaints about senior police officers, and is again involved in senior officer complaints for another police force.

Moi is passionate about providing a genuinely independent service, and about helping organisations to identify learning and wider lessons from complaints in order to improve their service.

Her approach is to understand the complainant’ s journey and perspective, and to support staff to provide a complainant centred service, while maintaining her impartiality.

The role of the Independent Examiner of Complaints (IEC)

The IEC is not a civil servant or Home Office employee. They are a non-statutory office holder, independent of, and at arm’s length from the Home Office. Their independence is set out in their terms of appointment. This allows them to make fully independent decisions based on the merits of each complaint on a case-by-case basis.

How the Office for the Independent Examiner of Complaints (OIEC) ensures its independence

The office that supports the IEC is staffed by civil servants, who are bound by the civil service code, ensuring integrity, honesty, objectivity, and impartiality in their conduct.

OIEC staff support the IEC in reviewing complaints, attempting to resolve them to the complainant’s satisfaction, and examining the case records to establish whether the Home Office worked in line with its own procedures and guidance.