I’m delighted to see Tony Wright’s Public Accounts Committee recognising what many of us knew all along: a “culture that encourages proper whistleblowing… is the best safeguard against leaking”. The BBC has an outline of the findings here.
The challenge is shifting that culture. Unfortunately, Britain still has an instinct for secrecy. The introduction of whistleblower legislation and the Freedom of Information Act have made surprisingly little difference to this deeply ingrained taste for keeping the public in the dark. I sincerely hope that the PAC’s proposal that civil servants are given a route of disclosure through parliament will make a difference. But I have my doubts.
The two major cases in which I have been directly implicated as a journalist (Katharine Gun and Derek Pasquill) raised deeply important public interest issues. Both individuals appeared before Tony Wright’s committee. In each case, it is difficult to see how they could have raised their concerns through the usual whistleblowing procedures.
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