Hancock: patients and staff must be protected

in 2015, two years after Jeremy Hunt, then the health secretary, announced he was banning NHS gagging orders.

Georgina Halford-hall, the Whistleblowersuk chief executive, said: “We have repeatedly asked the NHS for details on the number of NDAS used across the health service.

“The answer we’ve received every time has been that they don’t hold this information centrally.”

Mr Hancock said he wanted to make the NHS the safest healthcare system in the world and had brought in a number of measures, such as introducing Freedom To Speak Up Guardians in every trust, and making sure directors were accountable.

“Starting at the top down we can harness a caring, compassionate culture that protects patients and staff and reaffirms the bond of trust between the public and our National Health Service,” the Health Secretary added.

“I’ve asked Baroness Harding [the NHS Improvement chairman] to consider a range of options to improve the quality of senior leadership and strike the right balance between a culture of learning and a culture of accountability in the forthcoming People Plan for the NHS.”

Commenting on the tribunal ruling, Mrs Allison’s MP and former Lib Dem leader, Tim Farron, said: “Sue was incredibly brave in speaking out about her experience of dangerous standards of care. I’m really glad to hear that she has won the first important step in her tribunal case.”

The trust said it was disappointed with the ruling and was considering its next steps. It claimed that concerns raised by Mrs Allison had already been investigated.

David Walker, the medical director at University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust, said: “We are disappointed that the employment tribunal has decided that the case regarding the trust’s settlement agreement with Sue Allison should now go to the employment tribunal stage.

“The trust considers that the confidentiality clauses included in that agreement were in accordance with the appropriate guidance on such clauses.

“We will study the judgment in detail and decide what our next steps could be.”