About 3,000 people called a whistleblower hotline last year in an attempt to expose record levels of fraud, corruption and misconduct, The Daily Express revealed. They attacked Whistleblowers UK to report misconduct with police, NHS, government, financial services and other major institutions and departments.
Campaigners say existing laws do not protect insiders who witness misconduct at large institutions and want to speak up to stop it.
They believe that whistleblowers are likely to be ignored and discredited by their bosses while their claims are covered up.
But nonprofits are backing a new Whistleblowing Protection bill that would create an oversight body with legal powers to investigate illegal activity.
“They don’t have it now. They have to go to the media who have no legal authority to investigate this child’s misconduct.
“We are saying that government should not do government work and leave it to well-intentioned professionals and tenacious militias of individuals.
“We must normalize speaking up and help those who feel alone and outcast. Whistleblowing is so important to keep us all safe.” .”
She said the culture of large corporations, charities and public institutions means that senior management is “morally absent” when misconduct is exposed.
“For too long, leadership has been focused on creating buttons and what they do, but not enough on how they do what they need to do.
“This bill is specifically designed to drive cultural change in the UK, and hopefully it will be done on a much wider scale than in the UK.”
“Power must sit with those who can do it, and hold accountable those who cover up or retaliate against those who speak up.
“Our bill is revolutionary because what we did was that if they retaliated, you would be held accountable.
“You could be in prison for up to two years and could be fined £50,000. The fine could be much higher.”
Baroness Susan Kramer said her whistleblowing bill protections would create an office of whistleblowers with legal authority to investigate wrongdoing.
“Where there are people, there are people who do wrong, and where there is power, there are people and institutions who abuse it.
“The most powerful deterrent is the whistleblower, whether it’s financial services or the NHS. It’s an army of citizen whistleblowers.
“Whistleblowers do a very important job of exposing abuses and crimes and often find themselves at a disadvantage.
“Another thing is that organizations get a cultural shift that says that if someone tells us something has gone wrong, it needs to be investigated immediately.
“They started going around the wagon and were able to turn on whistleblowers to defend what felt like an attack on the inner circle.”
