The Scottish Government
Wednesday, 3 February, 2016

Over the past few years there have been a number of high-profile cases involving tragic incidents in the NHS across the UK. Investigations into these and other incidents revealed that, in some cases, staff who had concerns about what was happening were unsure about whether or how to raise these concerns, or had raised the issue only to be ignored. This led to policies being developed to promote, support and encourage whistleblowing and whistleblowers in NHSScotland.

The Scottish Government and NHSScotland are committed to ensuring that all employees are encouraged, supported and confident in raising any concerns they may have about patient safety, behaviours which may lead to harm, or malpractice in the NHS, as this makes our health service better.

Through a whistleblowing policy, employees are encouraged to raise any valid concerns they may have and are guaranteed to have their concerns taken seriously and investigated appropriately. Employee concerns can relate to a wide range of matters, examples of which include, amongst other things, issues on child protection, adult protection, financial malpractice or health and safety issues.

What is whistleblowing and how is it addressed?

Whistleblowing has no legal definition, but we tend to associate the term with a worker - the ‘whistleblower’ - who reports suspected wrongdoing at work. This is sometimes referred to as ‘making a protected disclosure’, or, ‘qualifying disclosure’. Workers who make a qualifying disclosure receive statutory protection from detriment. There are provisions in the 1Employment Rights Act 1996, amended by the 2Public Interest Disclosure Act (PIDA) 1998, which protect workers who make a disclosure in the public interest (whistleblow) from detriment. But any worker can report things that they genuinely feel aren’t right, are illegal, or, if anyone at work is neglecting their duties.

This response has been submitted online.