MPs call on civil service to create ‘speak up’ environment to improve whistleblowing culture

MPs have set out how the Civil Service can encourage and better respond to whistleblowing allegations after finding a series of weaknesses in Whitehall's handling of whistleblowing.

In a report, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) said the Civil Service suffers from an unsupportive culture of whistleblowing and called for a cultural change to raise awareness and provide assurance on the process.

The committee also voiced disappointment over the Government's poor progress in implementing some recommendations made in a previous PAC report on whistleblowing published in 2016.

In its most recent report, the cross-party committee found that the Cabinet Office, which has oversight of whistleblowing arrangements in the Civil Service, has made "slow progress" on a 2016 recommendation that called for improved data collection.

It said: "Since we reported in 2016 that the Cabinet Office did not have the data it needed, it has started to collect information from departments.

"But there are some key metrics missing, such as data on 'ongoing cases' and the length of time an investigation takes, making it difficult to understand whether cases are taking too long and why that might be the case."

In addition, the committee found a lack of data analysis and sharing of insights regarding whistleblowing across of the Civil Service.

It recommended that the Cabinet Office use its central position to analyse the cross-government data it collects.

This could help identify trends and valuable insights to be shared across the Civil Service, the report said.

The report also noted that a "speak up" environment is not yet embedded throughout departments to encourage people to comfortably raise concerns.

It pointed to a 2022 survey which found that just 52% of Civil Service staff thought it was "safe to challenge the way things are done" in their organisation.

The committee said there is still a negative perception of whistleblowing, which can discourage people from speaking up.

To tackle this, it said a positive attitude towards whistleblowing "needs to be more than something embedded in the HR function – it needs to be embedded throughout departments, with clear messages of support from senior staff in the organisation on a local level". 

The report also noted that the Cabinet Office does not seek feedback from whistleblowers and, as a result, is missing "vital insights into the effectiveness of the process".

More broadly, the report added that there is a lack of joined-up thinking when it comes to sharing good practices across the civil service.

The committee went on to make the following recommendations:

1 (a): The Cabinet Office should set out the additional data it plans to collect from departments in its annual data collection in 2024 and 2025.

1 (b) The Cabinet Office should check the data collected from departments is being reported accurately by undertaking spot checks. This should be implemented immediately.

2: The Cabinet Office should clearly set out the specific actions it will take to analyse and synthesise the data collected in 2024 and 2025 to help improve the knowledge of whistleblowing across the Civil Service.

3: The Cabinet Office should set out how it will ensure departments will build a positive environment that will encourage whistleblowing concerns to be raised.

4: The Cabinet Office should commit to requiring all departments to collate feedback from whistleblowers at the end of the process. It should implement this immediately and use this information to better understand the whistleblower experience and make improvements.

5 (a): The Cabinet Office should work with departments to develop a way of disseminating good practice across the Civil Service. Within this it should pay specific attention to how this will include smaller organisations and arm’s-length bodies.

5 (b): It should do this work within 6 months and implement new practices shortly thereafter.

Adam Carey