With more than half a million staff working in the civil service its vital to public accountability that Government departments are getting whistleblowing right – especially as they’re funded through the public purse. Following a critical report senior officials from the Cabinet Office, HMRC and DWP have reported back on how they’re improving their whistleblowing arrangments across the civil service.
With the growth in anonymous whistleblowing reporting platforms we look into the pros and cons of trusting an external reporting tool – and what this means for both employers and whistleblowers.
In 2023, Protect significantly impacted the lives of thousands of whistleblowers by providing practical and legal advice on how to safely and effectively raise workplace concerns. The UK’s leading whistleblowing charity worked on 3047 total cases, a rise of 23% on 2022.
The largest bank in the United States – JP Morgan – has been fined $18 million for breaching whistleblower protection rules – one of the most significant penalties imposed by the American financial regulator. As concerns grow in the UK that wealthy corporations are abusing the law to silence their critics, the story offers a timely lead on what the UK could be doing better.
This is another damaging example of whistleblower concerns going unheard with devastating consequences. An effective speak up culture is essential for all organisations to catch problems before they escalate. This is all the more important in health settings where patient safety is at stake. But even more pressing is making sure there is an active listening culture to pick up concerns and ensure whistleblowers are recognised.
The Post Office Horizon scandal is one of Britain’s biggest miscarriages of justice – in this blog we examine the role of whistleblowers in bringing the scandal to light and the changes we would like to see to prevent future scandals of this kind.
If a whistleblower can’t disclose their concerns directly to an employer, or they have been ignored, or are not satisfied with their response, then they can escalate concerns to a relevant regulator to investigate. But, if your employer is a regulator, who do you raise concerns to?
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.
