With World Whistleblowers Day here (Tuesday, 23 June), the Business Support team at Protect has been reflecting on the work of employers who are commendably continuing to strive to achieve a strong and positive speak-up culture, and how those with best practice policies could use this national focus day to signpost employees to their arrangements. … Read more
Protect’s pilot examining whistleblowing culture in the Third Sector has found key weak spots it believes are symptomatic across many of the 168,000 charities in England and Wales. Chief Executive, Liz Gardiner said, “The room for improvement in the Third Sector is well documented following the Oxfam and Save the Children scandals. But in recent … Read more
Survey findings of 150 health care staff by frontline lobbying group for doctors, The Doctors’ Association has highlighted the shocking treatment of NHS doctors who dared to blow the whistle on inadequate PPE supplies, which featured on BBC Newsnight this week. The survey respondents were made up of 25% of nurses and just under 25% … Read more
Protect is calling on the HMRC to reinstate its fraud hotline for whistleblowers who are trying to raise public interest concerns about misuse of taxpayers’ money. Protect, which handles around 3,000 whistleblowing cases to its Advice Line each year – has seen a spike in calls to its Advice Line in recent days on furlough … Read more
Far too often is bullying a prevalent concern in the workplace, which places a strain on workplace culture and leaves employees stressed. In the wake of a Cabinet Office investigation into the bullying behaviour of Home Secretary Priti Patel that is set to be concluded this week, the former Home Office permanent secretary Sir Philip … Read more
Our one-day Whistleblowing Masterclass has gone live online – and our first training session has received great feedback from delegates. Like many organisations faced with new ways of working, the Protect team have worked hard to deliver our in-depth training on whistleblowing and best practice into an engaging online product. Our Legal Officer Hari Raithatha … Read more
Protect has today published guidance for regulators and professional bodies in a bid to drive up public duty standards to investigate and improve whistleblower handling. “Over 2019 our Better Regulators campaign set out to engage and collaborate with both regulators and professional bodies on how we could offer our whistleblowing expertise to see if we … Read more
In the UK, certain regulators are recognised as ‘prescribed persons’ by the government, for example the Care Quality Commission and the Health and Safety Executive. Being a ‘prescribed person’ means that an organisation can be approached to receive and handle specific concerns, as listed online. This matters for whistleblowers, as making a disclosure of information … Read more
Following the news that an employment tribunal has been lodged against Home Secretary Priti Patel under whistleblowing laws, Protect Chief Executive Liz Gardiner said the case showed how “whistleblowing laws can be used to hold even those in the highest office to account.” She said: “Far too often we see managers and senior personnel disregarding … Read more
The Covid-19 crisis has given rise to fast changing laws and regulations, and new loopholes and opportunities for fraud have emerged. Within a few weeks of the furlough scheme’s introduction, Protect has seen a rising trend in calls from whistleblowers concerned their employer is acting unlawfully. Whistleblowers will be vital in policing this scheme to … Read more
