Fire services are covering up “abhorrent” abuse of staff, by bullying the whistleblowers who raise concerns, the official watchdog has found.

Victims are failing to report bullying, sexism and racism for fear of reprisals from managers, said the HM inspectorate of police and fire services.

Some who did reported misconduct said that an ally of the perpetrator was then appointed to investigate their allegations, in what amounted to a “cover-up,” inspectors revealed in a report published on Thursday.

In an exclusive article for The Telegraph, Roy Wilsher, the chief fire service inspector, said the “widespread and often deep mistrust” of the misconduct process was one of the most worrying findings in his report.

It meant there were still “pockets of abhorrent behaviour” across fire services in England including bullying, harassment, intimidation, abuse of power and racist, sexist and homophobic language, said Mr Wilsher. And women were more likely to fear reprisals for blowing the whistle than men, he said.

“A lack of faith in the confidentiality of the process means they fear repercussions if they report an issue. Tellingly, we found women were more likely than men to express a fear of reporting.

“This begs the question; how can we root out misconduct if people are scared to report it?” he asked.

Abuse of power

More than one third of nearly 4,500 firefighters surveyed by the inspectorate said they had suffered bullying, harassment, abuse of power and racist, sexist and...

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