Whistleblowing Awareness Week 2024

Our Senior Partner Clive Coleman attended the launch of Whistleblowing Awareness Week at the House of Commons on Monday 21st October. Maltin PR is pleased to be sponsoring this Week of important talks and debates.

Speeches and presentations were given by several speakers from parliament, journalism and the law, all of whom are experts in the field of Whistleblowing.

These included Baroness Susan Kramer, Georgina Halford-Hall CEO of WhistleblowersUK, Gareth Snell MP, Iain Mitchell KC, BBC News Economics Correspondent Andy Verity, and retired judge Victoria McCloud. In addition, there was powerful personal testimony from NHS Whistleblower Dr Chris Day who has fought a ten-year legal battle since raising serious concerns about the inadequate ratio of doctors to patients in a hospital Intensive Care Unit.

Many spoke of the critical importance of improving the protection of whistleblowers set out in the Whistleblowing Bill. It seeks to establish an independent Office of the Whistleblower to protect whistleblowing and whistleblowers in the public interest. The new Office will set, monitor and enforce standards for the management of cases. It is hoped this will end the David versus Goliath battle that often takes place when an individual working for a large and powerful organisation blows the whistle. The Office will also provide disclosure and advice services, direct whistleblowing investigations and order redress for the detriment suffered by whistleblowers, who risk losing their careers by speaking up. In addition, the Bill proposes creating criminal offences relating to the treatment of whistleblowers and the handling of cases. Importantly it will repeal the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998 which is widely recognised as providing inadequate protections.

Maltin PR’s Managing Partner Tim Maltin commented: “WhistleblowersUK is performing the difficult and much needed role of transforming the way society thinks about whistleblowing, and the way it treats whistleblowers. Whistleblowers play a vital role in holding commercial and other powerful organisations to account and identifying and presenting wrongdoing. Whistleblowing Awareness Week is therefore an important event and we are proud to be supporting WhistleblowersUK in this excellent cause.”

Find out more about WhistleblowersUK here.