During the course of his job, Oliver realised his company had hired someone who had previous convictions for a serious financial crime. Oliver had been made to do a DBS check when he joined so was shocked this person had been hired.
Amal* works for a charity providing wellbeing services to vulnerable adults. She called Protect following a serious incident where a service user had physically threatened her. Amal explained that she had raised concerns previously about the charity’s building not being safe for workers following previous incidents. She told us her requests for securing the premises and implementing additional safety measures for staff had been ignored.
As a new recruit in the police force, Mary* was shocked to discover what was happening amongst police officers in her area. Mary knows that so-called “trainers” are responsible for teaching police officers how to do their job and issuing licenses to those who have completed their training. However, Mary came across compelling evidence suggesting that more than a hundred trainers themselves were unqualified and lacked oversight of who had completed their training.
Water companies don’t seem to be able to stay out of the headlines. In the past year alone there have been 300,000 instances of firms discharging raw sewage into rivers and seas – most of these being illegal. Now Ofwat has released updated whistleblowing expectations for water companies. We ask whether this will help address wrongdoing in the industry and give would-be whistleblowers the courage to speak up.
The National Audit Office, the independent public spending watchdog, reports that progress to improve whistleblowing in the civil service is slow and inconsistent. Much has already been written about how difficult it is for civil servants to raise concerns outside of their department but this new look at what is happening inside government is disappointing.
We welcome this National Audit Office report into whistleblowing in the civil service. The report notes that whistleblowers are key to good government and challenge is critical to holding organisations to account. Recent scandals, including Greensill and Partygate, showed that people inside government knew about wrongdoing but may have been afraid to come forward.
As officials from governments, Member States, parliaments, civil society and the private sector come together for one of the world’s largest anti-corruption gatherings we explore a new resolution calling on member states to recognise the role whistleblowers play in the fight against corruption and provide them from retaliation. .
When it comes to calling out wrongdoing in the workplace, could it be that some people are more likely to speak up than others? At Protect, a notable number of callers to our Advice Line identify as being neurodivergent and/or on the autistic spectrum. While this observation doesn’t prove a link, we think this warrants exploration.
Your monthly whistleblowing news update. This month: McDonald’s faces up to two sex abuse claims a week, employment tribunal rules on parliamentary privilege challenge in foreign office whistle-blowing case and following Lucy Letby, 71% of doctors say whistleblowing damages careers.
Josie Stewart, Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO) whistleblower, who is bringing a claim that she was unfairly dismissed because she blew the whistle can’t rely on parts of her evidence because of Parliamentary Privilege.
The Advice Line will be closed for the Christmas holidays from 1pm on 24 December until 9.30am on 5 January. Please call when our lines reopen, or leave a webform and one of our advisers will get back to you in the New Year. Wishing you a lovely festive break and a happy new year!
