Whistleblowing policy

The Public Interest Disclosure Act (PIDA) requires public bodies, such as ourselves, to have a whistleblowing policy and to ensure that employees are not victimised or dismissed for raising their concerns internally.  This also applies to those who, as a last resort, feel the need to take their concerns to an outside body, such as the Local Government Ombudsman.

Members of the public who raise concerns are not legally protected by PIDA. We therefore offer the option for the person making the allegations to withhold their identity when they raise concerns.

You may feel that the only way you can raise your concerns is if we protect your identity.  If the whistleblower does choose to disclose their identity, we will respect confidentiality as far is possible.  However there are times when we cannot guarantee this, for example, where a criminal offence is involved or if there are child protection or adult safeguarding issues.

We will attempt to ensure the whistleblower’s identity is not disclosed to third parties. We will not disclose information unless the law allows or compels us to do so, for example in order to comply with a court order.  If the information you provide includes personal information about another person, then that person may be entitled to access it under subject access provisions of the Data Protection Act or General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR).  If releasing that information could reveal identifying information about the whistleblower, we will always ask for your consent prior to releasing the information.

We will not tolerate any harassment or victimisation (including informal pressure). We will take action to protect you when you raise a concern believed to be in the public interest.  We will take any disciplinary or corrective action should anyone attempt to victimise the whistleblower or prevent concerns being raised.

If we proceed to a formal investigation we may require you to give evidence along with other employees and witnesses.  We are, in some circumstances, able to do this without disclosing the identity of the whistleblower.  A statement from you may also be required as part of criminal proceedings or Employment Tribunal. This depends on the nature of the concern.

If your whistleblowing disclosure results in an internal investigation and you provide a witness statement under that process, we may use your statement for disciplinary purposes.  This means your statement may be given to the subject as part of a disciplinary hearing.  An employee subject to the disciplinary process can ask to see personal information held about them at any time under the subject access provisions of the Data Protection Act. This may include information within your statement.  If it is possible to provide access to personal information within your statement without revealing any information about you, we will do so.  If this is not possible, we will always seek your consent before releasing any information.    

If your statement is not required for disciplinary purposes it will be:

• held confidentially on our case file (until the case file is destroyed after seven years)
• released only with your consent or a Police or Court Order

We:

• do not expect you to give us your consent. This is your decision alone, but we are required by law to ask you
• do not need a reason should you choose to refuse the request

If you find yourself the subject of a whistleblowing disclosure and a decision is made to investigate, we will follow the appropriate employment procedure:

• dignity at work
• grievance
• disciplinary

This means you will have all the rights contained in that procedure, such as, the opportunity to respond to the allegation and representation at the investigatory interview.