In a letter to Labour education spokesman Peter Kilfoyle, the parliamentary ombudsman, Sir William Reid, claims that “nobody investigates complaints of maladministration on the part of TECs”.

Writing to Mr Kilfoyle, MP for Liverpool Walton, concerning a complaint against Merseyside TEC from one of his constituents, Sir William said TECs are outside his jurisdiction.

The MP’s constituent, Malvern Hanlon, took his case to the parliamentary ombudsman after failing to win an investigation elsewhere.

The complaint centred on a Training for Work programme, funded by Merseyside TEC and completed by Mr Hanlon. He alleged that standards of training and assessment were inadequate and that advertisements for the course were misleading.

Sir William added that he has brought the “gap” to the attention of the Nolan Committee on Standards in Public Life, which heard evidence this week as part of its investigation of the management of local public spending bodies, including TECs.

The committee has heard calls from local authority representatives of all political parties for clear complaints procedures and an external and independent complaints body for all local public spending bodies.

However, suggestions that grievances against TECs go uninvestigated were strongly denied by Chris Humphries, chief executive of the TEC National Council. The current system, under which an impartial arbitrator chosen jointly by complainants and TECs investigates individual grievances, was entirely effective, he claimed.

Mr Humphries said: “We are absolutely not against the right to a free and open complaints system. It is about how it is done. To me, the idea of an appointed ombudsman suggests a nanny state, whereas giving individuals the right to choose an arbitrator is empowering.”

Mr Kilfoyle said the absence of a permanent TEC watchdog was baffling. “It seems the TECs are not accountable to anybody, and nobody can take them to task if things go wrong. Where does that leave the little man?”