Civil service whistleblower Josie Stewart

[Civilservicewhistleblowing]

I'm a long time lurker on this board, first time poster. I first found Mumsnet for the baby stuff, and have stayed for the feminism.

This isn't directly a GC feminist cause, but I think it's relevant for a few reasons.

Josie Stewart is gardening for a legal case, following her dismissal from the FCDO for whistleblowing over the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan.

In her garden, she says "I am taking my case to tribunal because the Public Interest Disclosure Act is vague and there’s almost no precedent for cases like mine. This gives government more power to coerce silence in cases of wrongdoing. It should be clear that civil servants will be protected if, in exceptional circumstances, they make a reasonable decision that the public interest requires disclosure of information.

If I win, my case will clarify critically important whistleblower protection. If I lose, it will make the case for much-needed reform in our legislation so that civil servants can speak truth to power and call out government impropriety. It’s important either way."

I think this speaks to the GC cause, as we may need civil servants to be able to whistleblow where necessary, and clarity in the law around this would be helpful.

You should be able to find her crowdfunder by googling protecting public interest whistleblowers and Josie Stewart.

I have no idea if she's GC or not, but looks like it should be an interesting case. Whether she wins or not, she seems like a woman of principle, so I've donated already.

@Civilservicewhistleblowing I’m vaguely aware of her case.

I am always concerned when a Civil Servant goes to the press rather than using the prescribed routes in the legislation. In addition to whistleblowing to her employer, she could go to a legal advisor or Minister of the Crown. Additionally there is a long list of prescribed person which also includes her MP.

The whole point of PIDA was to stop people going to the press and to provide safe independent routes to escalate concerns e.g. an MP who is not from the governing party.

Having looked it up, it's not clear to me who she should have raised the issue with, if not raising the issue internally. I believe her concerns related to senior leadership's actions, so not an option for her potentially. Raising with your own MP, it would depend for me on who that MP is.

Plus, in a fast moving situation, you may want things to change more quickly. I can see why she went to the press.

But, I am no expert on this stuff and I can see what you mean. I don't know what impact it will have on the case.

I suppose, I just think it's an interesting case, and will potentially have an impact on whistleblowing in the future and on the culture in the civil service of speaking truth to power, so I can see a few parallels there.

I agree with much of what she says about the direction some departments have taken and that generally the government should be held to account at times. I think this though would be a dangerous precedent:

protect civil servants who share sensitive information in the public interest

One person's 'public interest' could be quite subjective. There should be changes though if people feel they have no channels to escalate urgently and outside of their own department as can see this is sometimes necessary.

Also seems she is more annoyed with the BBC for not redacting her name when going to the press always carries a risk.

I'm a whistleblower who won a case under PIDA, one of only 3% who do. The law needs repealing and replacing urgently. As it happens it's Whistleblowing Awareness Week next week and we have new legislation proposed, which includes an Office of the Whistleblower.

If anyone is interested in coming along then see info here - www.wbuk.org/whistleblowing-awareness-week

Will go and do a little gardening.

@Evalina Ah I didn't know it was Whistleblowing awareness week coming up. Maybe that's why I've seen this.

Can I ask what your whistleblowing case was about?

@Pythonhyphen yes, public interest is subjective. But, for me anyway, it seems pretty clear cut here. The withdrawal from Afghanistan was very badly handled, people's lives were and potentially still are at stake and ministers were making misleading statements to the press.

I think truth in public life is important. The public do need to know things like this, so there needs to be a be a way for civil servants to be able to whistleblow, however that's handled. I don't think people should lose their jobs for this.

Mine was not very exciting. I raised concerns internally about sex discrimination and bullying of colleagues, and was retaliated against as a result.

Sorry that happened to you. Must have been really difficult.

https://protect-advice.org.uk/josie-syewart-civil-service-whistleblower/

Here's an article by Protect, the whistleblowing charity if anyone wants to find out more.

If anyone thinks this isn’t an issue have a look at Australia’s “Robodebt” public enquiry. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robodebt_scheme

@Thinblueglass not sure I get the link to Robodebt. Can you explain more?

The government was repeatedly advised that averaging earnings over 12 months to check for overpayment of unemployment benefit and ignored it. (And May have demoted those that gave the negative advice) I will see if I can find an Australian Guardian link and a link to the Royal Commissions website.

www.theguardian.com/australia-news/royal-commission-into-robodebt
robodebt.royalcommission.gov.au

The point about whistleblowing legislation is that you should try the prescribed routes first. Going straight to the press without giving the process a chance is a problem as you end up with even more unbalanced reposting.

@Civilservicewhistleblowing The withdrawal from Afghanistan was very badly handled, people's lives were and potentially still are at stake and ministers were making misleading statements to the press.

Afghanistan was a mess due to Joe Biden’s decision to pull out with virtually no notice. The impact on everyone involved has been awful.

Reading with intrigue,

@Foreversearch Yes, and I think there is a different threshold for disclosures made to the press rather than raised internally. I think it will be interesting to see if it's been met in this case, or if it's a threshold that could be met by others.

I agree re Biden, but I also think the FCDO have crisis and withdrawal plans in place for many countries. Whether there was appropriate planning and it was put into action well enough to ensure people who had helped the British as well as Embassy staff is another thing. I believe many embassy staff had moved out beforehand, which suggests the FCDO knew something was coming.

@Civilservicewhistleblowing a really interesting one is the CCTV of Matt Hancock kissing Gina Coladangelo. No argument it was in the public interest.

However, from a legal perspective it would be breach of GDPR because passing the data to a 3rd party (journalist) is unlawful processing of personal data. This could, under PIDA, have been escalated to Simon Case and Boris Johnson plus the police. I accept in this case it would have been swept under the carpet so going to the media was the right action as it was so stupid.

The current legislation - PIDA - is not fit for purpose and needs to be repealed. I did everything you are supposed to, disclosed internally, went to the Employment Tribunal.

I won my case but it took 3 years of my life and £100k in legal fees which are not recoverable.

Employment Tribunals do not look at the disclosures. The whole process is pointless.

If you see serious wrongdoing then the only real route is the Press. She had no choice.