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Complaints Policy

Our Policy

Ecological Planning & Research Ltd strives to deliver excellent services to our clients and other stakeholders. In the unfortunate event that you feel we have not met this standard we encourage you to let us know so that we can resolve the matter satisfactorily and can look to improve the ways in which we conduct our business.

Our Procedure

If you have a complaint the first step is to raise it informally with your main contact (usually the EPR Project Manager (PM) who is overseeing the work on your project), either verbally or in writing, so that they can resolve it. We would encourage you to raise the matter with them as soon as possible so that they can address your concerns before matters get worse. In practice, most complaints can be resolved in this way.

Every EPR project and the assigned PM is overseen by a senior member of EPR Management who is at Principal Ecological Consultant (PEC) grade or above. If you feel that the EPR Project Manager has not resolved your complaint, then you can escalate the matter by asking to speak with that person and raising your complaint with them. You may already be aware of who the senior person overseeing your project is, but if you the PM assigned to your project should provide their name and contact details on request.

If you feel that raising the matter with your PM or their senior supervisor has not resolved the matter satisfactorily, we would ask that you make a formal complaint in writing, via email or letter, so that there can be no misunderstanding about the nature of your concerns. The letter/email should be addressed to the Director(s) of the company.

Once we receive your complaint we will take the following steps:

  • We will aim to acknowledge your complaint within 5 working days of its receipt and inform you of who is dealing with your complaint.
  • Your named contact will look into your complaint, requesting further information if necessary.
  • Within 10 working days of your acknowledgement we will write to you to confirm the outcome of your complaint, including any action we propose to take as a result of the internal inquiry. If we are unable to meet this timescale we will notify you, explaining why, and setting a deadline by which you will hear from us again.

We hope that we are able to resolve your complaint satisfactorily but accept that sometimes this is not possible. In such circumstances, the information below explains how you can take matters further if you wish to.

All of our ecological consultancy staff are either members of the Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management (CIEEM) or in the process of becoming members (if junior), and are therefore subject to CIEEM’s Code of Professional Conduct (See: https://cieem.net/resource/code-of-conduct/).

Additionally, EPR itself is a Registered Practice with CIEEM, and subject to its Code of Practice for Registered Practices (See: https://cieem.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/CODE-OF-PRACTICE-for-REGISTERED-PRACTICES-1-1.pdf)

If you believe that your complaint relates to a breach of the CIEEM code of conduct or practice, you can make a complaint directly to CIEEM (see: https://cieem.net/i-need/about-our-members/making-a-complaint/) and have recourse to CIEEM’s professional conduct inquiry procedures (see https://cieem.net/resource/professional-conduct-inquiry-procedures/).

However, if your complaint relates to our business services, invoicing and charges you should contact the Citizen’s Advice Consumer Service (UK) or the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (RoI), who will be able to provide you with advice about how to take your complaint further.