Francis Report: Update and Response

Lord Walney Excerpts

Wednesday 11th February 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

I add my congratulations to my hon. Friend, who makes an important point. The heart of the problem of whistleblowing is the confusion between employment law and patient safety. We need to divorce those two things and put in place a proper procedure to ensure that the right thing happens if someone raises a concern about patient care, and that it can be externally investigated to ensure that the trust did the right thing. Issues of employment law and someone’s professional behaviour should be pursued on a completely different track—those things are rightly and properly a matter for the courts. It is precisely because of the kind of issue he talks about that people are afraid to speak out. They worry that if they do, even if they win at an employment tribunal, they might never get a job again. For that reason, we welcome the shadow Secretary of State’s commitment to work with us and put on the statute regulation-making powers making it illegal for NHS organisations to discriminate against former whistleblowers.

[John Woodcock (Barrow and Furness) (Lab/Co-op)]

The Secretary of State and I spoke last week about the importance of the upcoming Kirkup report. Grieving families in my constituency want to be able to move on from the tragedies they have suffered and see proper change in the culture at Morecambe Bay. What happened was not right and is still under criminal investigation. Will the improvements the right hon. Gentleman has announced today be in place when the report is published, and does he agree that the response to it must be neither whitewash nor witch hunt? If he does, how can he help make it happen?

[Mr Hunt]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for the close interest he has shown in this issue and the constructive way in which he has engaged with families locally to try to get to the bottom of a really terrible tragedy. He puts it better than I could. We need to implement the recommendations in a tangible and real way so that something actually changes, but we do not want to do it in a way that has unintended consequences. That is why the focus of what Sir Robert is saying this time is not about new criminal sanctions. Although the law has a role—we changed the law on wilful neglect, for example—this is about creating a supportive culture through which people want to listen and learn when others speak out. Of course, if people do not, there should be sanctions, but that should not be the primary motivator.