There continue to be issues with how whistleblowers can raise concerns in Government, as highlighted by both the Committee on Standards in Public Life in 2023 and the Boardman Review into the development and use of supply chain finance in Government in 2021.
The Committee’s 2014 and 2016 whistleblowing reports found that a lack of leadership across Government has led to inconsistency in whistleblowing arrangements, and that the Cabinet Office did not have the data required to identify where improvements are needed in Departments’ whistleblowing performance.
In 2023, the National Audit Office (NAO) conducted an investigation providing an overview of the whistleblowing landscape in the civil service. Based on the NAO investigation, the Committee will take evidence from senior Cabinet Office officials on subjects including:
- The current picture of whistleblowing in the civil service;
- Roles and responsibilities for whistleblowing arrangements;
- Central Government support and oversight of whistleblowing;
- Consistency of data collection.
If you have evidence on these issues, please submit it here by 23:59 on Tuesday 2 April 2024.
Please look at the requirements for written evidence submissions and note that the Committee cannot accept material as evidence that is published elsewhere.
Please note that the Committee is unable to investigate individual cases. Parliamentary select committees are not prescribed bodies under the statutory framework for whistleblowing. You can find more information on how to whistleblow to an appropriate body on the Gov.uk website, here: https://www.gov.uk/whistleblowing.