Whistleblowing reports to Shropshire Council increase
There has been an increase in the number of whistleblowing reports made to Shropshire Council.
During 2024/25, the authority received 28 reports compared to 23 the previous year. Whistleblowing provides a process for concerns to be raised in relation to work, such as fraud, adult/child protection, or harassment and bullying allegations.
The majority were received by email, with the most common theme being staffing. No cases were referred to an external third party.
Other themes included council tax/non-domestic rates, safeguarding, tenancy fraud, theft/fraud, and planning/building control.
Nearly a third (10) resulted in management action, with seven having “no case to answer”. 10 are ongoing, while one has been listed as “not-applicable”.
Speaking at Shropshire Council’s Audit Committee, Councilor Malcolm Myles-Hook (Liberal Democrats, Prees) asked what is going to change to bring the numbers down next year, and if members learn the outcome of actions.
“We don’t report what the management actions are,” said executive director James Walton.
“They can be very minor to quite major. Generally, we try to ensure the confidentiality of this by minimising that. There is an argument of whether more whistleblowing is good or not.
“It’s about accessibility. If lots of people blow the whistle and no action is taken as a result of it, then there’s something wrong.
“All we can do is report what it is. I fully accept there will be information behind this that I’m not party to. It’s more about giving you the opportunity to consider whether the process is working or not.
“What we don’t want going out is ‘if you blow the whistle in some way, you’re going to be identified’.”
Councillor Duncan Kerr (Green and Progressive Independents, Oswestry South), who was chairing the meeting, said that members need to have some information about what the outcome was, “otherwise what’s the point in having a policy?”
He also asked if there could be an investigation into whether a call-handling company could be used to handle reports over the phone, and if there could be some clarification to staff about what the policy is. That was approved by members.
Meanwhile, Councillor Kerr confirmed that in 2024/25, there were no whistleblowing reports related to the North West Relief Road.
He was responding to a question from Shropshire resident John Palmer, who asked whether anyone had come forward with an attempted whistleblowing report regarding the scheme, but officers or councillors then discouraged it from being lodged and investigated.
“We are not aware of anyone coming forward with an attempted whistleblowing report in relation to this scheme that was discouraged,” said Councillor Kerr.
“As outlined in the report to Audit Committee [speaking up about wrongdoing], we continue to receive an average number of reports each year to provide assurance that this is routine, and open to employees, elected members, contractors, partners and members of the public to report any areas of concern.”
