Public sector whistleblowers are treated “shockingly,” MPs find

Whistleblowers in public services, including the NHS, have been subjected to “shocking” treatment, and government departments have failed to protect them from being victimised, an influential committee of MPs has said.

The House of Commons Public Accounts Committee said that it had heard of too many cases where colleagues meted out “appalling” treatment to co-workers who had blown the whistle on wrongdoing, but departments had been unable to tell the MPs whether victimisers had been sanctioned.

In its evidence to the committee the whistleblowing advice charity Public Concern at Work could recall only one case in which an employee who victimised a whistleblower had been sanctioned. It happened …