Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to ensure water companies are held accountable for sewage discharge.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government is clear that the amount of sewage discharged into our waters is unacceptable. We will not let companies get away with illegal activity and we have taken a series of actions to ensure that where breaches, are found companies will be held to account.
Government directed water companies to increase their storm overflow monitoring in 2013 and achieved 100% coverage before the end of 2023.
Meeting this target is a significant achievement in creating positive environmental change and holding water companies to account. The wealth of data collected from these monitors will ensure that we know the full extent to the problem – increasing transparency, revealing the worst-offending overflows, and enabling regulators to continue to hold polluters to account.
The Environment Agency can now impose unlimited penalties on water companies for a wider range of offenses following Government’s changes to broaden of the scope of the existing civil sanctions regime and remove the previous cap on penalties.
The Government also has recently announced a consultation to ban water bosses’ bonuses when criminal breaches have occurred, quadrupled company inspections- by the end of March 2025, fast-tracked £180m investment to cut spills, and launched a whistleblowing portal for water company workers to report breaches.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of guidance issued by his Department to (a) Network Rail, (b) National Highways and (c) the Great British Railways transition team on potential conflicts of interest.
Answered by Huw Merriman - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
The Department for Transport’s (DfT) Arm’s Length Bodies have a duty to manage public money responsibly and effectively and in a transparent way. This includes managing any potential conflicts of interest effectively through the implementation of an effective and appropriate Conflicts of Interest (CoI) policy, in line with the Cabinet Office’s Procurement Policy Note: Applying Exclusions in Public Procurement, Managing Conflicts of Interest and Whistleblowing (PPN 04/21).
As the Great British Railways Transition Team (GBRTT) employs people from across the rail industry, DfT’s Rail Reform team has been working closely with them to maintain and improve current information sharing processes, including ensuring NDAs have adequate provisions to protect all parties where potential conflicts of interest exist. This includes ensuring GBRTT have adequate provisions in place when working with Train Operating Companies (TOCs) and contractors.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will bring forward legislation to protect whistleblowers in the NHS complaints process.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Government recognises how valuable it is that whistleblowers can shine a light on wrongdoing, and believes that they should be able to do so without fear of recriminations. There are legal provisions within the Public Interest and Disclosure Act 1998 that protect workers against detrimental treatment for speaking up in the public interest. In March 2023, the Department for Business and Trade announced a review of the whistleblowing framework, which aims to examine the effectiveness of the framework in meeting its original objectives, which are to facilitate whistleblowing, protect whistleblowers against detriment and dismissal, and to facilitate wider cultural change around whistleblowing. The review is still ongoing, and the Government will publish the evidence, and set out the next steps this year.
Asked by: Feryal Clark (Labour - Enfield North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps he has taken to support his Department's staff who act as whistleblowers.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office has clear, well established Whistleblowing policy and process arrangements. Responsibility is shared between HR, which owns the policy, and HO Security & Investigations, who run the Nominated Officer network.
As the link between the individual raising the concern and the organisation, the Nominated Officers oversee the management of Whistleblowing cases and help the employees with raising their concern by providing advice independent from individual’s management chain.
In addition to Nominated Officers and the whistleblowing team, other internal channels of support available to individuals throughout the process include:
The department operates several routes for employees to raise concerns, including a hotline, an inbox for emails and online form which ensures that individuals can remain anonymous if required. To ensure anonymity, all concerns are recorded centrally with the identity of the individual raising the concern not recorded alongside their concern.
The Home Office Raising a Concern including Whistleblowing policy is regularly promoted and referenced on the staff intranet and internal communication channels reminding staff of the routes available to raise concerns and signposting the support available to those individuals who raise a concern.
Asked by: Claire Hanna (Social Democratic & Labour Party - Belfast South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make an assessment of the adequacy of whistleblowing procedures for health workers with concerns about patient safety.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
I feel strongly that the National Health Service must support and welcome all staff to speak up. It is the duty of a health practitioner to speak up whenever they are concerned. Over the last decade, the Government and our system partners have delivered major initiatives in response to recommendations made to the Department. Our focus has been on making progress and this approach has improved governance, delivered more robust regulation, enabled staff to speak up more freely, protected whistleblowers, and changed the way patient safety is approached in the NHS.
The data submitted by the Freedom to Speak Up Guardians provides invaluable insight into the implementation of the Freedom to Speak Up policy, which is reported quarterly to the National Guardian’s Office. Over 100,000 cases have been raised with Freedom to Speak Up Guardians since 2017.
Whilst there is more to do to remove detriments, there are signs that the improvements to speaking up are valued, for example, over 25,000 cases were brought to Freedom to Speak Up Guardians throughout 2022/23, a 25% increase on the previous year. 19% of cases reported in 2022/23 involved an element of patient safety or quality, up from 18.8% in 2021/22.
Asked by: Maria Eagle (Labour - Garston and Halewood)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to page 18 of the Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S) Annual Report and Accounts 2022-23, how many staff members have utilised the DE&S Whistleblowing and Raising a Concern Policy in each year since 2019.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The DE&S Whistleblowing and Raising a Concern Policy sets out two principal routes available to employees who wish to raise a whistleblowing concern; the central MOD Confidential Hotline and discussion with line management. Instances of whistleblowing issues raised directly with line management are not recorded centrally. Regarding the MOD Confidential hotline, between 1 January 2019 and 31 December 2023, there were 13 cases raised for DE&S. It is not possible to state how many individuals raised these cases. A breakdown of cases by year is given in the table below:
Year |
No of Cases
|
2019 |
0
|
2020 |
2
|
2021 |
0
|
2022 |
2
|
2023 |
9
|
Asked by: Lord Berkeley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government who were the accounting officers for HS2 and the Department for Transport in (1) March 2014, (2) January 2016, (3) April 2016, and (4) July 2019; when they were made aware of allegations of deceptions and fraud as reported in the Sunday Times on 22 October; and on which dates and to whom in Government they reported any concerns about cost overrun.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Accounting Officers at HS2 Ltd and the Department for Transport were as follows:
HS2 Ltd
DfT
The Government and its public bodies take any allegations raised seriously and will ensure they are thoroughly investigated.
The National Audit Office (NAO) examined historic allegations in 2018 and determined that these were unfounded. There is one new allegation which relates to a live whistleblowing investigation by HS2 Ltd.
It would be inappropriate to comment while the investigation is ongoing.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent steps he has taken to review whistleblowing processes in the NHS.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
As part of its role to lead culture change so that speaking up becomes business as usual in the National Health Service, the National Guardian’s Office carries out Speak Up reviews, which seek to identify learning and changes that will improve the experience of workers, patients and the public. The most recent Speak Up review looked at NHS ambulance trusts to understand their speaking up culture and identify areas for improvement. The Care Quality Commission also looks at Freedom to Speak Up within NHS organisations under the ‘well led’ part of its assessment framework.
More generally, workers who blow the whistle are entitled to protections, which were introduced through the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998. On 27 March 2023, the Government announced a review of the wider whistleblowing framework. The review will examine the effectiveness of the framework in meeting its intended objectives – namely to enable workers to come forward to speak up about wrongdoing and to protect those who do so against detriment and dismissal.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what processes his Department has put in place to respond to concerns raised by NHS staff and patients.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure that the NHS responds to concerns raised by staff about potential harm to patients (a) appropriately and (b) swiftly.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Last year, NHS England rolled out a strengthened Freedom to Speak Up policy, which covers the importance of listening to concerns and responding to concerns that are raised. All organisations providing services within the National Health Service are expected to adopt the updated national policy by 31 January 2024 at the latest. The National Guardian’s Office has also produced a training package aimed at all workers, including managers and senior leaders, which underlines the importance of responding to and acting on staff concerns.
There is also a network of Freedom to Speak Up Guardians, covering every trust, whose role includes ensuring the person who raises a concern is responded to and receives feedback on the actions taken.
Following the outcome of the trial of Lucy Letby, NHS England wrote to all NHS trusts to further emphasise the importance of NHS leaders listening to the concerns of patients, families and staff and following whistleblowing procedures.