How Do I Make a Service Complaint?

Who this guide is for

Serving and former members of the UK armed forces (the Naval Service, the Army and the Royal Air Force) who think they have been wronged in a matter relating to their service, and want to know how to make a service complaint, the time limits, what happens next and how to challenge a decision. The service complaints process is the same across the UK. The part about employment tribunal claims is for England, Wales and Scotland.

What this guide does not cover

• Armed Forces Compensation Scheme claims, war pensions and other compensation for injury or illness caused by service: see our armed forces compensation guide.
• Problems with your civilian job because you are a reservist, for example being mobilised or getting your job back afterwards. This guide does not cover them: ask Citizens Advice (Advice NI in Northern Ireland).
• Civilians who work for the Ministry of Defence: see our employee rights guide.
• Reporting a crime, for example a sexual assault, to the police or the service police, and court martial or other service discipline. This guide does not cover them.
• The full list of matters that cannot be the subject of a service complaint, and the details of each special-to-type procedure (for example for housing, pay and allowances, or healthcare). This guide does not list them: see JSP 831 on GOV.UK, or ask your unit HR team.
• The Armed Forces Commissioner's investigations after a complaint has been decided, including their time limits, and the Commissioner's wider work on service welfare. This guide does not cover them: ask the Armed Forces Commissioner.
• Any other kind of employment tribunal claim about your service, such as unfair dismissal, pay or equal pay. This guide does not cover them: ask a solicitor.

What the rules depend on

1. Were you subject to service law when the matter happened, and are you still serving, a reservist, or have you left?
2. When did the matter happen, or when did it last happen? Did you have to use another procedure first, for example for housing, pay and allowances, or healthcare, and when did that end?
3. Is the matter something that could be an Equality Act 2010 claim, such as discrimination, harassment or victimisation? That decides whether the service complaint limit is 3 months or 6 months.
4. Where are you in the process: not yet complained, told your complaint is not admissible, waiting for a decision, received a decision, or told your appeal cannot go ahead? On what date did you receive that decision?
5. Do you also want to take the matter to an employment tribunal, and do you live and serve in England, Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland?

"Can I make a service complaint?"

If you are subject to service law and think you have been wronged in any matter relating to your service, you can make a service complaint about it.

If you have left and are no longer subject to service law, you can still make a service complaint about a wrong relating to your service that happened while you were subject to service law.

GOV.UK says a service complaint can be about bullying, harassment, discrimination, and biased, improper or dishonest behaviour.

Some matters cannot be the subject of a service complaint at all: they are listed in regulations. This guide does not list them: see JSP 831 or ask your unit HR team.

If you are a reservist, whether you can complain depends on whether you were subject to service law at the time. This guide does not cover when a reservist is subject to service law: ask your unit HR team.

A service complaint is made by one person. Other people can make their own service complaints about the same or similar matters.

"Should I try to sort it out informally first?"

GOV.UK says that, if possible, you should try to settle the matter informally first. You can speak or write to the person responsible, ask the chain of command or a colleague to look into it, or ask for mediation. JSP 763 on GOV.UK explains informal resolution.

This guide does not cover whether informal steps change the time limit for a formal complaint. If you are close to the time limit, make your formal complaint in time.

For some kinds of complaint, a special-to-type procedure must be followed before the service complaints process starts. GOV.UK gives housing, pay and allowances, and healthcare and medical treatment as examples, and says this is not a full list.

If the specified officer thinks you are expected to use another formal procedure first, they can put all or part of your service complaint on hold until you have finished that procedure.

"How long do I have to make a service complaint?"

You must normally make a service complaint within 3 months beginning with the day the matter happened, or the last day if it happened over a period of time.

If you were expected to use another formal procedure first, the 3 months begin with the day that procedure ended.

If the matter is or has been capable of being an Equality Act 2010 claim to an employment tribunal about work, such as discrimination, harassment or victimisation, the limit is 6 months instead of 3.

Harassment under the Equality Act 2010 means unwanted conduct related to a protected characteristic (such as race, sex, religion or belief, or sexual orientation), or unwanted conduct of a sexual nature. To count, it must violate your dignity or create an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for you (section 26).

If the matter could be an equal pay claim under the Equality Act 2010, the time limit follows the time limit for that claim. This guide does not cover it: ask a solicitor.

A complaint made after the time limit can still go ahead if the specified officer thinks it is just and equitable to allow it in all the circumstances. It is not automatic. Your statement of complaint must say why you did not complain in time.

"How do I make a service complaint?"

A service complaint must be made in writing. Fill in a service complaint form on the My Complaint app (through Defence Gateway), or fill in the form at Annex F of JSP 831 and send it to your Single Service Secretariat. Your unit HR team can tell you who to send it to.

The person your complaint goes to is called the specified officer.

Your statement of complaint must say:

• how you think you have been wronged;
• the name, if you know it, of anyone you say is the subject of the complaint or is involved in it;
• whether it involved discrimination, harassment, bullying, or dishonest or biased behaviour;
• the date it happened, or that it happened over a period and when that ended, or that it is still happening, or that you cannot remember the date;
• if you are complaining after the time limit, why;
• the redress you are asking for, and the date of your statement.

If you raise a new matter after the decision on whether your complaint is admissible, it is dealt with as a new service complaint.

"What happens after I make my complaint?"

The specified officer decides whether your complaint is admissible, which means whether it can go forward as a formal complaint. They may contact you to discuss it, and may get legal advice first. They can decide that all of it, part of it or none of it is admissible.

A complaint is not admissible if:

• it is about a matter that regulations say cannot be the subject of a service complaint;
• it is made after the time limit and a late complaint is not allowed;
• you do not meet the rules on who can make a service complaint; or
• it is substantially the same as a complaint of yours that has already been decided, or is still being dealt with.

The specified officer must tell you the decision in writing. If they decide your complaint is not admissible, they must give you the reasons and tell you that you can ask the Armed Forces Commissioner to review the decision.

You can ask the Armed Forces Commissioner to review a decision that your complaint is not admissible within 4 weeks beginning with the day you received that decision.

The Commissioner can accept a later request only if they think it is just and equitable. The Commissioner's decision on admissibility is binding on you and on the specified officer.

"How is my complaint decided?"

If your complaint is admissible, the Single Service Secretariat appoints a decision body. The decision body usually chooses a person or people to investigate and tells you who they are. You can give them more information and suggest witnesses. The decision body decides how the investigation is done, and other evidence or witnesses are only considered if it agrees.

The decision body sends you a copy of the investigation report, with the evidence, and you can comment on it before the decision is made. The decision is sent to you in writing with the reasons and any action to be taken.

A decision body or appeal body can hold a hearing to speak to you, the people you complained about and witnesses.

"How do I appeal?"

You can appeal within 2 weeks beginning with the day you received the decision.

Use the appeal form on the My Complaint app, or the form at Annex G of JSP 831, and send it to your Single Service Secretariat. Your appeal must set out its grounds. There are 3 grounds:

• there was a material procedural error;
• the decision was based on a material error about the facts; or
• there is new evidence that was not available, and could not have been made available with reasonable diligence, before the decision, and the decision would probably have been materially different with it.

A late appeal must say why it is late. It can go ahead only if it is allowed as just and equitable.

The Single Service Secretariat decides whether your appeal can be considered. If it decides your appeal cannot be considered, you can ask the Armed Forces Commissioner to review that decision within 4 weeks beginning with the day you received it. The Commissioner's decision is binding.

If your complaint involves bullying, harassment, discrimination, dishonesty or biased behaviour, the appeal body includes an external independent member. The appeal body looks at your whole complaint and decides whether more investigation is needed.

If the decision on your complaint was made by the Defence Council itself, there is no appeal: you can ask the Armed Forces Commissioner to investigate instead.

"What can the Armed Forces Commissioner do?"

From 1 April 2026 the Armed Forces Commissioner took over the service complaint work of the Service Complaints Ombudsman for the Armed Forces.

You can contact the Commissioner at any time during the service complaints process. You can ask the Commissioner to:

• help you get access to the complaints system through a service complaint referral;
• review a decision not to treat a matter as a formal complaint;
• review a decision not to consider an appeal;
• investigate delay in the service complaints process; and
• investigate issues about how a complaint was handled or its outcome.

After the decision on your appeal, or a decision by the Defence Council, you can ask the Commissioner to investigate. This guide does not cover the time limit for that: ask the Armed Forces Commissioner.

"Who can help me through it?"

An assisting officer can help you set out your complaint, go to interviews and meetings with you, and help you prepare responses to the decision body or appeal body.

You can choose your own assisting officer, or your unit HR team can find one. The assisting officer should be at least SNCO rank or equivalent, know the service complaints process, and have no personal interest in the matter.

Deadlines and timings

• Service complaint: 3 months, or 6 months for a matter that could be an Equality Act 2010 claim (not age or disability, which keep 3 months). The time is counted from the day the matter happened (or the last day of it, or the end of another formal procedure you had to use first).
• Review of a decision that your complaint is not admissible: ask the Armed Forces Commissioner within 4 weeks.
• Appeal against the decision on your complaint: 2 weeks.
• Review of a decision that your appeal cannot be considered: ask the Armed Forces Commissioner within 4 weeks.
• A decision is treated as received on the second day after it was posted, sent electronically or delivered to you. The 2 weeks and 4 weeks begin with that day.
• Employment tribunal (England, Wales and Scotland): 6 months from the act, running at the same time as the service complaint.

Traps

• Older forms, letters and web pages may still send you to the Service Complaints Ombudsman (SCOAF). That office has been abolished: go to the Armed Forces Commissioner instead.
• The appeal deadline has been 2 weeks since 15 June 2022. Some older guidance gives a longer period.
• If you only know the month something happened, not the day, the 3 months could end on any day in a range of about a month. Only treat the complaint as in time if even the earliest possible last day has not passed, and complain as soon as you can. Make the complaint as soon as you can, and if it may be late, say why so it can be allowed as just and equitable.
• The 3-month limit is the normal one. Do not assume you have 6 months unless the matter could be an Equality Act 2010 claim. Age and disability complaints keep the 3-month limit, because the Equality Act 2010 work rules on age and disability do not apply to service in the armed forces.
• Bullying on its own is not an Equality Act 2010 matter. Unless it is linked to a protected characteristic (such as race, sex, religion or belief, or sexual orientation) or is of a sexual nature, the service complaint limit is 3 months.
• A late service complaint, review request or appeal is only allowed if it is just and equitable. Never plan on it.
• A problem with your civilian employer because you are a reservist is not a service complaint.
• Do not withdraw your service complaint if you may want to go to an employment tribunal.
• The service complaint time limit and the tribunal time limit are 2 different deadlines that both start from the same act.