(Image: GETTY)
About 3,000 people called a whistleblowers’ hotline last year in a bid to expose record levels of fraud, corruption and malpractice, The Daily Express can reveal. They bombarded Whistleblowers UK to report wrongdoing in police forces, the NHS, government, financial services and other major institutions and sectors.
Campaigners say existing laws do not protect insiders who witness misconduct in large institutions and want to speak out in a bid to have it stopped.
They believe whistleblowers are likely to be ignored and discredited by their superiors while their allegations are swept under the carpet.
But the non-profit group is backing a new Protection for Whistleblowing Bill which will create a watchdog with statutory powers to investigate malpractice.
Executives who orchestrate a cover-up could face up to two years in jail or a 50,000 fine.
Supporters are also staging the first Whistleblowing Awareness Week in Parliament next week to lobby support for new legislation from MPs and Peers.
Georgina Halford-Hall, chief executive of Whistleblowers’ UK, said: “Any member of the public who wants to raise a concern needs somewhere to go.
“They don’t have that now. They have to go to the media who do not have statutory powers to investigate wrongdoing of this kind.
“We’re saying it is time for the Government to do...
Hyderabad: BRS leader Aedla Sudhakar Reddy strongly criticised the statements of HYDRAA commissioner A.V. Ranganath regarding the status of Bathukammakunta. The official had claimed that the place...