Government announces legal support for NHS whistle-blowers

New powers to protect staff introduced in a bid to make NHS ‘the world’s safest healthcare system’

NHS whistle-blowers will be legally protected from discrimination when applying for another job in the health service, the Government will say today.

The proposed powers mean NHS employers will not lawfully be able to discriminate against job applicants who have previously spoken out about potential risks to patient safety.

Any applicants who face discrimination will get legal protection and NHS employers will face tough penalties if applicants’ complaints are upheld. The move is part of the Government’s wider drive to develop a “culture of openness and transparency” within the NHS.

Caroline Dinenage, the care minister, said: “These important measures should ensure staff can raise concerns knowing they are protected by the law and that their career in the NHS will not be damaged.

“For too long, we have failed to protect those who are brave enough to speak out when others won’t. We want to make the NHS the safest healthcare system in the world, so we must build a culture of openness and transparency among our staff.”

The changes were a key recommendation in Sir Robert Francis’s Freedom to Speak Up review, which found that a number of people struggled to find employment in the NHS after making protected disclosures about patient safety. Sir Robert found that NHS staff who blew the whistle on sub-standard and dangerous practices were being ignored, bullied or even intimidated in a “climate of fear”.

He was asked by Jeremy Hunt, the Health Secretary, to recommend how staff could be supported when raising concerns.

Existing initiatives include a role of Freedom to Speak Up Guardian within all NHS organisations, as well as national pilot schemes to support whistle-blowers and help them back

‘For too long, we have failed to protect those who are brave enough to speak out when others won’t’

into work. The new regulations will give applicants the right to complain to an employment tribunal if it appears that they have been discriminated against because they have previously spoken out.

It will also enable compensation to be awarded if a complaint is upheld.

The new law will also set out the time frame in which a complaint to an employment tribunal must be lodged and the remedies open to a tribunal if a complaint is upheld, including compensation.

Whistle-blowers would also get the right to bring a claim in the civil courts for breach of statutory duty in order to “restrain or prevent discriminatory conduct”.

Officials said the draft regulations would “empower staff to speak up”.