Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to page 18 of the Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S) Annual Report and Accounts 2022-23, how many staff members have utilised the DE&S Whistleblowing and Raising a Concern Policy in each year since 2019.

The DE&S Whistleblowing and Raising a Concern Policy sets out two principal routes available to employees who wish to raise a whistleblowing concern; the central MOD Confidential Hotline and discussion with line management. Instances of whistleblowing issues raised directly with line management are not recorded centrally. Regarding the MOD Confidential hotline, between 1 January 2019 and 31 December 2023, there were 13 cases raised for DE&S. It is not possible to state how many individuals raised these cases. A breakdown of cases by year is given in the table below:

No of Cases

0

2

0

2

9