Protect is calling for a shake-up of UK regulatory bodies with enforcement powers, calling on them to ‘step up’ and better regulate the industries they monitor. Head of Policy at Protect, Andrew Pepper-Parsons, said, “Too many of our callers who approach their regulators find a dead end for their concerns, or receive stony silences instead … Read more
Whistleblowers play a key role in exposing corruption, public safety scandals and unethical behaviour. Unfortunately, all too often they can suffer fear, silence, and loneliness just from telling the truth. Protect, along with our partner, WIN (Whistleblowing International Network) is supporting the campaign #TruthNeedsFriends by the Green/EFA Group in the EU Parliament which hopes to … Read more
A governance report into local authorities by the National Audit Office (NAO) has found one in six councils do not have their whistleblowing policies easily available on their websites, and of the policies that the NAO could find – 24% were out-of-date. The report, Local Authority Governance, published 15 January, acknowledged the challenges facing local … Read more
Protect Head of Policy Andrew Pepper-Parsons attended conference Exposing Secrets: the past, present and future of U.S. National Security Whistleblowing and Government Secrecy which brought together academics, legal experts, journalists and a few US national security whistleblowers to debate the issues. The two-day conference on US national Security whistleblowing aimed to take a historic look … Read more
Protect attended a public meeting of the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Whistleblowing at Westminster chaired by Baroness Kramer along with many whistleblowers, including those with experience in education, care, the NHS and other public services. Attendees were generally in agreement about the principles of whistleblowing and that greater support for whistleblowers is needed. To this … Read more
Academics at Middlesex University have presented Helen Evans, former Global Head of Safeguarding at Oxfam, with their UK Whistleblower Award for 2018. In 2018, Helen blew the whistle on the systemic sexual exploitation and abuse perpetrated by Oxfam aid workers. Her revelations were one of the biggest charity scandals in recent years. While Helen worked … Read more
Following the Women and Equalities Committee report into sexual harassment in the workplace – which found the government, regulators and employers all failing to tackle the issue of sexual harassment in the workplace – Protect asks is the government taking enough action? The government have pledged to bring in a Code of practice on sexual … Read more
The Government has published legislation it describes as the ‘biggest package of workplace reforms for over 20 years’ – implementing 51 of the 53 recommendations of the Taylor review into UK modern economy workplaces. Whilst welcomed – Protect see a missed opportunity for workplace reforms for whistleblowers. The government review into working practices in the … Read more
An OFGEM whistleblower – Greg Pytel – has been told that he is unable to challenge the victimising behaviour of his employer in the Employment Tribunal after he raised public interest concerns about the implementation of smart meters. He is now having to take his case to the Court of Appeal, at his own expense. … Read more
Protect is calling on clearer legislation surrounding NDAs (non-disclosure agreements) it says is preventing whistleblowers from speaking out over gagging fears and threats of legal costs. Protect (formerly Public Concern at Work) is calling for clearer wording for 43J of the whistleblowing law, the Public Interest Disclosure Act (PIDA). It wants all NDAs, or settlements, … Read more
