Making a complaint to The Prisons and Probation Ombudsman

The Prisons and Probation Ombudsman (PPO) can investigate issues about the way you have been treated.

The Prisons and Probation Ombudsman may be able to investigate your complaint if:

• you are currently on probation or living in approved premises
• you are detained in immigration detention, or your complaint is in relation to an escort from an IRC
• you are currently in prison or youth custody, or recently have been

They can investigate complaints about how you’ve been treated, decisions made about your care, supervision and general treatment actions that may or may not have been taken by staff. 

The PPO can only investigate the complaint if: 

• you have gone through the full complaints process in your organisation (or prison/youth custody) first and are unhappy with the outcome
• it’s been less than 3 months since your organisation gave you their final response to your original complaint, or if the complainant does not receive a reply to their complaint within 45 working days of making it for people on probation, or 30 working days for detained individuals (prisoners).

For making probation and immigration detention complaints. Details here.

For making prison and youth custody complaints. Details here.