Mr Mark Norman, Legal Adviser and Deputy Monitoring Officer presented the Whistleblowing annual report. He said the report provided Members with an update on the Council’s whistleblowing arrangements in accordance with paragraph 6.1 of the Council’s Whistleblowing Policy.

He said the appended report ought to show the track changes of where the policy had been amended however it appeared the report attached to the agenda did not show these changes. Mr Norman proposed to circulate the track changed document via email and said he would welcome any comments in relation to this.

Regarding the report, Mr Norman said the report provided an update on the number of Whistleblowing cases received and investigated since the last report to the Audit Committee.

In response to questions from members the following was noted:

• Councillor Whitehead asked why issues were raised by residents when the policy was aimed at staff? Mr Norman responded stating all complaints are logged via the Council’s Website and then filtered according to if the complaint required a direct response from the service area or if the complaint was a whistleblow. Mr Norman said under the whistleblowing policy, access to lodging a complaint had to be available to all – residents, staff, contractors etc and as such whistleblow cases were filtered out. He said the number identified as whistleblow cases had reduced substantially since changes made in July 2020.
• In reference to paragraph 3.5, Mr Norman said the investigation was undertaken by the directorate however he had oversight of the whistleblow.

• ACTION: The Whistleblowing Policy showing the track changes to be circulated to members for comment.

The Audit Committee RESOVLED to

1. Consider and note the content of the report; and

2.    That the Whistleblowing Policy be approved and that the Corporate Director for Legal be delegated authority to make minor changes to the policy, following consultation with the Chair of the Audit Committee, should there be any final comment by Audit Committee Members before publication.