Guide for Employees: Handling and resolving complaints from Members relating to the Corporation of Lloyd's.
Make a Complaint
Complaints arising from Lloyd’s members can be made orally or in writing. The following will detail how to handle complaints that are made via phone, email, letter, or fax.
If a member or their representative wishes to lodge a complaint over the phone, then please ensure that a copy of the call note, which is saved within our internal files, is filled out. Please ensure that you request contact details for the individual, including their address so that we can then provide our letters to the individual. You should also ask the individual to send us any relevant information that may help to assist with their case, either by post or email. Please then inform your Team Manager as soon as possible and provide a copy of the call note to the complaints officer who will then log the complaint.
If you receive a complaint from a Member/Member Representative (any letters/faxes will need to be date stamped) please inform your Team Manager as soon as possible. The letter will then need to be provided to the Complaints Officer who will then log the complaint.
In some instances, the Member or their representative, may find their own way to the Complaints Officer in which the Complaints Officer will lodge the complaint and notify the relevant Team.
If the individual is wishing to provide more information or speak with the Complaints Officer, then please provide the below details:
Complaints Officer at Lloyd’s
Lloyd’s Members Services
Walter Burke Way
Tel: +44 (0)1634 392039
Fax: +44 (0)1634 392947
Once the complaints officer has received notification of the complaint, the complaint will be lodged on the Complaints Register and a complaint file will be set up for the individual. An acknowledgement letter/email should be sent no later than 24 hours after receipt of the complaint. Within this letter we will advise of a response date, as well as providing them with the Appendix 1 which details ‘rights of referral’ to the LMO – Lloyd’s Members Ombudsman. A complaint notification email will be sent to the relevant Team Manager as well as the Senior Manager, providing a copy of the complaint and advising of the response deadline. A copy of all standardised letters will be attached to the notification email, for ease of reference. All necessary correspondence will be added to the file to ensure that we are keeping our files update for auditing purposes.
The FCA requires complaints to be resolved within 10 working days. This deadline will be monitored very closely by the Complaints Officer, as the Complaints Register automates the 24 Acknowledgement date, response chaser date, response date and or holding response date. The relevant Team Manager must decide who will handle the complaint, liaising with other Teams as necessary. If you are handling the complaint, you should ensure that you are investigating all the points raised in the complaint and that each point is then addressed in the response back to the complainant. If you were involved in the activity that led to the complaint, then you should plan for the complaint to be investigated by another individual who is not mentioned in the complaint.
Should the response be likely to take longer than 10 working days, then both Team Manager and Complaints Officer should be made aware. The complainant will then need to be contacted, by form of holding response to advise that the 10-working day deadline will not be met. Within this response you will need to detail the date as to when the individual will now receive the response to their complaint. If it becomes apparent that you will not be able to respond to the complaint within 4 weeks of receipt of the complaint, then a further letter should be sent to the complainant explaining why and giving a date as to when you will respond. In this letter you should again detail the ‘rights of referral’ to the Lloyd’s Members Ombudsman should they wish to take their complaint further at that stage.
If any point during the handling of the complaint, the Team Manager or Senior Manager or Complaints Officer, believe that a complaint could become contentious then notification of this should be sent to the Senior Compliance Officer and providing all the necessary information as well.
Throughout the process of handling the complaint, please ensure that all correspondence/documentation is provided to the Complaints Officer so that all the necessary information is being captured on the files.
You should discuss your response with your Team Manager. You must discuss any proposed offers of financial or other redress. Depending on the size and reason for the proposed payment, you should then consider discussing the implications of that offer with the Lloyd’s Legal Team.
Where financial redress is being considered, the aim should be to restore the Member to the position they would have been in, if the acts or omissions that gave rise to the complaint did not occur. The redress should therefore include an appropriate amount of interest in addition to the principal sum – any redress accepted by the member, should be provided to the Member promptly.
The written response to the Member’s complaint should set out the findings of your investigation. You should detail whether you have accepted or rejected the Member’s complaint. If you reject the members complaint you should give reasons for your decision.
Please note that your response should also detail the following:
“If you are dissatisfied with this response, you may refer your complaint to the Lloyd’s Member’s Ombudsman at the following address: Lloyd’s, One Lime Street, London, EC3M 7HA, UK. Please refer to Annex 1 of the acknowledgement letter of (enter the date of your original letter) for details of the Lloyd’s Members’ Ombudsman Scheme”
If a complaint appears to be contentious, or there is further response from the initial Complaint then this will be provided to the Senior Manager Governance, who will review, or arrange for an independent review and provide further guidance. The complaint may then be escalated further to the Head of Member Relations, Legal or another Corporation Business Unit, should this be deemed necessary. A further response may then be drafted in conjunction with that escalation.
Lloyd’s Members Ombudsman “LMO” will consider, and where appropriate, investigate certain types of complaints made against the Society of Lloyd’s “The Society”, by Members of the Society. Should a member of Lloyd’s wish to refer their complaint to the LMO for review then they should do so by sending their complaint to the below:
The Office of the Lloyd’s Members’ Ombudsman
One Lime Street
Once we received notification that an individual wishes to escalate their complaint to the LMO, then we will prepare an email as well as our full complaint file and forward this to the LMO and we will then await their decision. Our logs and files will then be updated to ensure we are keeping record of all information.
The Complaints Officer will create an electronic complaint file which will contain all relevant correspondence, notes, information, and documentation relating to the complaint. Please ensure that all information/documentation is provided to the Complaints Officer.
At month end a summary of each complaint will be reported to the Senior Compliance Manager for Member’s Services who will then share with the Head of Member Services. The information can then be included in the department’s next return to the Central Compliance Team. That return is required for the purpose of reporting information about Members’ Complaints to the FCA.