Policy Statement on Public Interest Disclosure (Whistleblowing)Carillion’s policy on raising concerns and the reporting of malpractice respects and supports the current legal requirements of the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998. The Act seeks to encourage workers to bring forward their concerns, ideally to the attention of their employers rather than regulatory authorities, and in certain limited circumstances to other parties, by providing statutory protection against dismissal. Carillion encourages workers to raise genuine concerns about malpractice at the earliest practicable stage. Malpractice within this Company is taken very seriously.
Principles
- workers are defined as trainees, agency staff, contractors and homeworkers as well as employees
- protection is given regardless of length of service or age
- the types of matters regarded as malpractice for the purposes of this policy are as follows:
fraud or financial irregularity
corruption, bribery or blackmail
criminal offences
failure to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation
miscarriage of justice
endangering the health or safety of any individual
endangering the environment
concealment of any of the above
- no disciplinary action will be taken against a worker on the grounds of a disclosure made within the procedure, in good faith, with reasonable belief that the allegation is true. However this will not prevent the Company from bringing disciplinary action in cases where there are grounds to believe that a disclosure has been made maliciously or vexatiously or where an external disclosure is made in breach of the procedure without reasonable grounds or than to an appropriate public authority.
- Business Groups will establish clear procedure/process which may vary but which will include:
person to whom disclosure in accordance with the above may be made
process for independent investigation
preservation of anonymity of individual making the disclosure if requested or necessary
confirmation to the individual of the outcome of the investigation
if appropriate, discussion about any further steps necessary to conclude matter