The BBC Trust responds

I received this email on the 8th January but forgot to post it here. It's their response to this complaint. Don't worry it's not very exciting, just a holding email. I do like their 40 working days self-imposed time limit to respond. 40 working days equates to 8 weeks, assuming no bank holidays. They're not exactly speedy at the BBC Trust are they?

Trust Editorial	8 Jan (6 days ago)
to me

Dear Notasheep

I am writing to acknowledge receipt of your appeal.

We will now consider your request for a final appeal under the BBC’s Editorial complaints procedure. In order to do this we will review your complaint and your previous correspondence with the BBC and decide whether your appeal qualifies for consideration by the Trust. We will only consider the points you raised at Stage 2 that you want the Trust to reconsider.  Therefore, unless there are exceptional circumstances, we will not consider new points at this stage. We also ask that you do not now submit any further documentation unless you consider this to be necessary for the purposes of your appeal.

The Trust’s Editorial complaints procedure explains that we will write to you with our decision within 40 working days of the receipt of your appeal, but we are usually able to do this sooner. We will also keep you informed if for any reason we meet with delay during this process.
If we decide your appeal qualifies to be considered by the Trust, we will write explaining the process and setting out the timescale for taking your appeal. In considering whether or not an appeal qualifies for consideration, we may decide to take only part of the appeal, and consider only some of the issues raised.
If our conclusion is that your appeal, or any part of your appeal, does not qualify for consideration by the Trust, we will write and explain the reasons for that. If you disagree with our view then you may ask the Trust to review the decision by writing to us within 10 working days of the date on which you received our response.
If we decide your appeal qualifies for consideration, or if you challenge the decision of the Trust Unit not to proceed with some or all aspects of your appeal, the matter will be considered at the next monthly Editorial Standards Committee meeting. We aim to provide you with their final decision within 80 working days of our decision to accept your appeal or challenge.
The Trust Unit reports on its performance against these target response times in the BBC’s Annual Report and Accounts (http://www.bbc.co.uk/annualreport/)

Full details of the BBC’s complaints procedure, including the appeal stage, can be found here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/contact_us/complaints/appeal_trust.html

Yours sincerely

Lucy Tristram

Complaints Advisor, BBC Trust Unit