Edinburgh's councillors have discussed 'major' allegations made by council staff in a meeting held privately.
Due to the sensitive nature of reports, which were compiled following disclosures made to Safecall, the council's external whistleblowing service, members of the Governance Risk and Best Value Committee (GRBV) agreed to debate them behind closed doors on Tuesday (June 14).
The private B agenda, which contained a whistleblowing monitoring report and two major investigation outcome reports, followed public proceedings where councillors were presented with new data on council whistleblowing.
A source said the reports dealt with issues "across the council" including "one major matter which is subject to external investigation and police investigation."
Head of Legal for the City of Edinburgh Council, Nick Smith, said a "significant increase" in the practice of contacting the whistleblower service had been noted.
In the first quarter of this year between January and April, the hotline received 19 new complaints, three of which were labelled 'major/significant', whilst 13 were 'minor/operational', and the remaining three are still to be assigned a category.
It follows up upward trend in whistleblowing observed following two investigations into the culture of the council and how staff are supported when bringing forward allegations of misconduct and malpractice in the workplace.
Since October when QC Susanne Tanner released the findings of her first inquiry into former...
PHOTO: RSPCA VIA AFP LONDON - An animal welfare charity has revealed it rescued more than 250 dogs from one UK home, with a photo of the scene prompting “disbelief” and false claims that the image...