The Cabinet Office has started collecting data on whistleblowing cases across government for the first time, in a bid to address MPs' concerns that officials still feel unable to raise public interest concerns at work.
A recent report by the Public Accounts Committee said the centre of government had shown a “lack of urgency” in creating a pro-whistleblower culture across departments, with PAC chair Meg Hillier saying “shoddy treatment” experienced by staff who had chosen to raise concerns previously may be deterring others from coming forward.
“Whistleblowers are on the frontline of defence against wrongdoing and bad practice," she said. "They have a vital role to play in the day-to-day accountability of public spending and public service. This should be recognised by and enshrined in the culture of every government department. Where it isn’t, senior officials in those departments should be held properly to account."
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The government has now published its formal response to that report, revealing that the civil service's HR leaders have been asked to gather data on the scale of whistleblowing in their departments for the first time.
A letter to the committee from civil service chief John Manzoni sets out the findings of the first such exercise – and shows that there were 68 reported cases of whistleblowing in the civil service between April and September last year, with "over half" of those complaints being made anonymously.
According to the data, 14 out of 32 departments reported cases of whistleblowing over the period, with 16 cases raised at the Department for Work and Pensions, 14 at the Department for Transport, 10 at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and five at HM Revenue and Customs.
The new Cabinet Office data also provides a breakdown of the reasons whistleblowing cases were lodged with departmental HR teams, with twelve of the 68 reported cases falling under the category of "deceiving/misleading ministers, parliament and others". Six cases were meanwhile opened because of concerns over the misuse of an official position, the data show, while four fell under the category of "danger to environment/health and safety".
"At this stage, a common theme emerging is that the majority of complaints were made anonymously" – Cabinet Office
The overwhelming majority of cases were listed as "Other", which the Cabinet Office says "includes cases in the wider public interest" as well as "more local HR issues" including the misuse of social media, benefit fraud and abuse of travel and subsistence allowances.
Other government departments that reported cases over the period include the departments for Business, Innovation and Skills, Communities and Local Government, Education, Defence and Justice. Some departments, such as the Treasury and the Cabinet Office, recorded no instances of staff raising concerns.
In its response to PAC, the Cabinet Office acknowledges that the new, centrally collated data remains a work in progress, with the information only likely to become useful once it can be compared with the next batch.
"This is the first time whistleblowing data has been collated centrally and there are wide variations in the data being reported," the Cabinet Office says.
"A well-evidenced assessment of systemic issues or concerns will take time to emerge, and will be possible once multiple data sets are available."
However, it says a "common theme emerging is that the majority of complaints were made anonymously", and says more should be done in departments to "provide assurance to employees to enable them to raise their concerns openly".
The first report on the data drawn up for Manzoni and Cabinet secretary Sir Jeremy Heywood meanwhile says the current tendency for officials to raise complaints anonymously rather than identifying themselves, suggests some civil servants do not "have the confidence in their departments to deal with their case appropriately".
To support the new collection of data on whistleblowing cases – an exercise the Cabinet Office says it wants to see repeated every six months – Whitehall's HR directors have been given a new, standardised tool for reporting on "how cases have been resolved, identification of systemic issues, and lessons learned".
The Cabinet Office also reveals that the civil service's non-executive directors – outsiders brought in to sit on departmental boards in an effort to improve governance and scrutiny – have now been given uniform guidance stressing the importance of effective whistleblowing inside their organisations.