The Cabinet Office is considering the introduction of a new cross-departmental "whistleblowing champion" as part of its response to MPs' concerns that the civil service does not do enough to support officials who call out wrongdoing.
Earlier this year, members of parliament's Public Accounts Committee said there was a continuing "lack of cross-government leadership on whistleblowing" that had resulted in varying approaches across departments.
MPs said that eight years after a previous damning PAC report on the issue, overall progress on improving data related to officials who speak up on workplace wrongdoing was "disappointing".
Among their conclusions, PAC members said a "speak up" environment had not been embedded across departments. They called on the Cabinet Office – which has responsibility for overseeing whistleblowing arrangements across government – to set out how it would ensure departments "build a positive environment that will encourage whistleblowing concerns to be raised".
According to the Cabinet Office's Treasury Minutes response to MPs, the department is weighing up the benefits of creating a new senior civil service post that would serve as a focus for whistleblowing.
"The Cabinet Office is considering the introduction of a civil service-wide whistleblowing champion at SCS level," it says. "The champion would be a senior figurehead to showcase the importance of speaking up across the civil service, to promote and encourage a culture where it is safe to challenge and to assure those raising concerns that they will be listened to and protected."
There is no timeframe for a decision on the creation of the "champion" role. The response also set out a number of other measures which the Cabinet Office is taking following the committee's recommendations, such as widening the data it collects from departments around whistleblowing and developing "an anonymised feedback survey for whistleblowers to capture their experience, sharing learning across government."
May's PAC report followed a December 2023 investigation into whistleblowing in the civil service that was conducted by the National Audit Office.
It found progress with improving whistleblowing arrangements across government to be "slow and inconsistent" and said that although organisations had support in place for officials who raise concerns, not enough was known about their experiences.
The public-spending watchdog said an average of 313 whistleblowing concerns were raised with departments each year between 2019-20 and 2021-22. The NAO said 40% related to fraud and that 77% of cases involved one of five departments – the Ministry of Defence, Department for Work and Pensions, HM Revenue and Customs, the Home Office and the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.
Over the three-year period, wrongdoing was found to have taken place in 76 cases, equivalent to 12% of completed investigations.
In 49 of the cases where wrongdoing was identified, disciplinary action was taken or changes made to policy and procedures.
The NAO said that in 20 cases it was not known what action had been taken, while no action was taken in the remaining seven cases.
A government spokesperson said: “We are committed to high standards of conduct and encourage any member of staff who has a concern or suspects wrongdoing to speak up.
“Whistleblowing is taken seriously, and procedures are in place for anyone within the Civil Service to raise concerns.
“We regularly review how to speed up investigations and procedures, and we have recently set up an online training offer as well as a dedicated whistleblowing practitioners community for departments to share advice on.”