Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to the contribution by the Minister of 12 November 2025, col 285, on the Nolan Principles, what the evidence basis was for stating that the National Audit Office and Public Accounts Committee did not recommend the creation of an independent Office for the Whistleblower due to the risk of duplication.

The National Audit Office made four recommendations in the report following its investigation into whistleblowing in the Civil Service and the Public Accounts Committee made five recommendations in its subsequent report.

Neither report recommended setting up an independent Office of the Whistleblower, and I have since corrected Hansard to clarify that the reports themselves did not refer to a risk of duplication. It is the Government’s position that an independent Office of the Whistleblower would be duplicative.

The full text of the reports are available online.

https://www.nao.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/investigation-whistleblowing-civil-service.pdf

https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm5804/cmselect/cmpubacc/457/report.html