OCEAN is committed to providing a fair and transparent process for addressing and resolving complaints. This Complaints Procedure is designed to provide a formal route to bring a complaint to the attention of OCEAN and ensure that complaints are handled promptly, objectively, and in accordance with applicable laws and regulations.

If you are dissatisfied with the services, actions, decisions, or conduct of OCEAN, or the information you have been given by us, then you can follow the steps detailed below to submit a complaint to OCEAN.

Step 1

Raise any initial concern or complaint with our Grant Administrators NIRAS via the OCEAN Helpdesk email: helpdesk@oceangrants.org.uk.

A member of the administration team will be in touch within five working days to help resolve your problem.

Step 2

If you feel your concerns have not been dealt with and would like to submit a formal complaint, then you can do so with our OCEAN Grant Administrators NIRAS via the OCEAN complaints email: complaints@oceangrants.org.uk.

All formal complaints will be acknowledged within two working days and will be formally reviewed by a panel of experts from NIRAS and Defra.  You will receive a response from the panel confirming the outcome of your complaint within 20 working days. If it is not possible to resolve your complaint within 20 working days, then you will receive notification of this confirming the expected timeframe for resolving your complaint.

Step 3 

If your report is regarding a serious concern, incident or complaint, or if you do not feel comfortable submitting your report to NIRAS via the above channels, then you should submit your report via email directly to Defra using the email addresses provided below. You can also refer to the OCEAN Whistleblowing Policy to find confidential reporting channels to confidentially file a complaint directly to Defra.

Please be aware that if your report is concerning a Fraud or Safeguarding concern, then these should be always submitted directly to Defra.

• Fraud and error concerns: fraudanderror@defra.gov.uk
• Safeguarding concerns (including SEAH): ODA.Safeguarding@defra.gov.uk
• Other concerns: OCEAN Defra Policy Team: OCEAN@defra.gov.uk

Appeals Process

If you are not satisfied with the outcome of your complaint or you do not feel like it has been fully resolved, then you have the right to submit an appeal for the complaint to be escalated.

Appeals can only be submitted once and are time limited to within 28 days of receiving notification of the outcome of your complaint.  The appeal should explain why you are dissatisfied with the received outcome of your complaint and be submitted to the Defra OCEAN Team’s email: ocean@defra.gov.uk.

The appeal will then be formally reviewed by a panel of Defra experts and if deemed appropriate referred to the Defra Service Standards Adjudicator with a formal response provided within writing within 20 working days.