Charity calls for a new code of practice on whistleblowing
Current legislation on whistleblowing is not working and a new code of practice should be adopted in all UK workplaces, a major report has concluded.
Employment tribunal panel members should also be given specialist training on whistleblowers, and courts and tribunals should be able to take non-compliance with the code into account when considering cases.
The report, published last week by the Whistleblowing Commission, which was set up in February by the charity Public Concern at Work to make recommendations for change, notes that less than half of UK employees are aware of a whistleblowing policy at their workplace.
Its proposed code, published with its report, sets out standards for organisations and businesses, and includes guidance for employers, their workers and representatives on how to deal with any whistleblowing issue. Failure to listen and act contributed to the poor standards of care at the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust, the report says, while whistleblowers were ignored on LIBOR rigging and the Jimmy Savile sex abuse scandal.
It recommends that the Public Interest Disclosure Act (PIDA) be strengthened and extended to cover a broader range of workers including doctors, social workers, foster carers and volunteers. It calls on regulatory bodies to be transparent about their own whistleblowing arrangements, and to “require or encourage” the adoption of the code by those they regulate, and calls for specific provisions against the blacklisting of whistleblowers.
In research by Public Concern at Work among 1,000 whistleblowers, three-quarters said nothing was done and 60% received no response.
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