Stephen Kerr MSP speaking out for Whistleblowers in Scotland

Our Vice Chairman Stephen Kerr MSP speaking out for Whistleblowers in Scotland

“Speaking up is a normal activity and most people have done it at some time in their lives. For the majority the experience is at most a little uncomfortable. For others their lives will never be the same again, the cost to society of ignoring these cases is simply unacceptable. I am not talking about the headline grabbing and globally contentious individuals associated with whistleblowing, Julian Assange, Edward Snowden or Watergate but the nurses, doctors, teachers, bankers, everyday people who are catapulted into disputes and sometimes the limelight for just doing their jobs. Scandal after scandal hits the front pages only because of a whistleblower usually accompanied by the outrageous treatment of the whistleblower.

Over and over again we witness the failure of the Public Interest Disclosure Act (PIDA) 1998 a now discredited and mistrusted law. This failure can be seen in the reports produced by public inquiry after public inquiry, setting out how whistleblowers were silenced, ignored or retaliated against by multiple individuals and agencies and how no one is held to account.

The UK wide child sexual exploitation is a case in hand. In the Scottish Parliament we have witnessed the suppression of sexual harassment in workplace and the appalling treatment of those who spoke up, a similar story in Westminster regarding the breach of Covid regulations. This week shocking reports were released by the IOPC into thousands of crimes committed against thousands of children in Oldham, Rochdale and Rotherham. These reports again expose the appalling treatment of the whistleblowers; police officers, NHS and local authority staff and those working in NGO’s. These whistleblowers were not only ignored but actively suppressed, they became targets and like the children many will never recover from their ordeal.

It’s all very well for politicians and senior leaders to record in the chamber their gratitude to those who speak out and commit to implementing the lessons learned but to the victims and whistleblowers these are hollow soundbites. The cost of these inquiries is eye watering and the cost to society is even greater.

These enquiries are almost entirely avoidable as the case of Linda Fairhall, a 62-year old nurse from Billingham, who was recently awarded £460,000 in compensation for what the judge decided was “just doing her job” demonstrates. As anyone would expect Linda, a charge nurse with 40 years of service, responsible for 50 staff and hundreds of patients, raised concerns following the introduction of new and additional requirements for nurses to monitor patients’ prescriptions. Linda said to her managers that without extra funding and additional support, “the quality of care could not remain the same, and the safety of patients and staff was at risk”.

Linda was absolutely right to raise and escalate these concerns, it was her job to keep everyone safe. In doing so she became a whistleblower, protected, or so she believed by PIDA. Not for one moment did Linda consider passing a note to a journalist and tipping off a newspaper, she was a professional and believed that her managers would welcome and act on her concerns and resolve the issues. Instead, shortly after she spoke out, Linda was fired. A similar story for police officers in Scotland one of whom, Rhona Malone, who quit the force’s firearms unit in Edinburgh where “misogynistic abuse and bullying were rife” was compensated almost £1m. This compensation was for the treatment she received after raising concerns about the treatment of female officers. She too was driven out, how many more simply walked away and why is no one being held to account?

PIDA is supposed to prevent this happening but the law failed all of these women as it does hundreds of people every year because it treats whistleblowing as a dispute between an employer and worker, even this is complicated! There is currently no obligation for anyone to ever investigate or act on the allegations and not a single case has been passed from a tribunal to the police or CPS in the 24 years since PIDA was introduced. This law far from protecting the public has put it at greater risk.

Although the recent employment tribunals found in favour of Linda and Rhona Malone the treatment of whistleblowers remains poor and serves to silence ‘would be’ whistleblowers. The message that this case and others like sends out is keep your head down and mouth closed because speaking up is likely to cost you your job.

Only 4% of claims brought succeed in the employment tribunal. 96% of cases that are heard fail and an undisclosed number are settled outside of the court costing millions of pounds every year. Most cases don’t make the news and end with the whistleblower leaving their job or being permanently side-lined and often blacklisted while the wrongdoing continues putting us all at risk, that is until the next whistleblower or public inquiry comes along.

PIDA was believed to be ground-breaking and world-leading in its time and all attempts to improve it have also failed. History has demonstrated that PIDA was poorly conceived and needs to be replaced with something that ensures wrongdoing is investigated, those responsible are held to account and those who speak up are properly protected.

A recent report shockingly reported that only 43% of UK employees are aware their employer has a whistleblowing policy. The Office of the whistleblower will be a champion for whistleblowers not only providing protection, investigations, compensation but most importantly education, ensuring that every citizen knows their rights and providing assistance to organisations making it easy to comply with the regulations.

I fully support the establishment of an Independent Office of the Whistleblower, and defining Whistleblowing and Whistleblowers in law. The OWB will be a game changer, possibly the most important policy change in the 21stC. It will completely change the culture surrounding whistleblowing promoting good practice across every organisation in every walk of life, protecting people and ensuring genuine concerns are acted on.

Normalising and formalising Whistleblowing will bring great benefit to every citizen; workers, businesses, and the country as a whole. It will allow concerned members of the public to raise issues that lead to positive change.

This is a policy we can all get behind. It’s inherently good to support genuine whistleblowers as only positive results can come from exposing bad practice or lawbreaking. I will reach out cross-party for support on this bill, and I know even if we disagree on almost everything else, I know that MSPs are always willing to step forward and back Whistleblowers because we all support and it is OUR job to protect the Public Interest!

We need to introduce the Office of the Whistleblower as soon as possible to prevent whistleblowers from continually being ignored.”