The Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act created a power for the Secretary of State to require ‘prescribed persons’ to produce an annual report on protected (‘whistleblowing’) disclosures made to them by workers. The aim of this duty is to increase transparency in the way that these disclosures are dealt with and to raise the confidence of the people raising concerns that their disclosures are taken seriously.
The GPhC is a ‘prescribed person’ under the Act. As a prescribed person we have to report in writing every year on the protected disclosures made to us. This is the report for the period 1 April 2021 to 31 March 2022.
Our role as a prescribed person is to provide workers with a place to make their disclosure to an independent body when:
If we are unable to take regulatory action because the disclosure is outside our scope, we will refer the disclosure to an appropriate organisation.
Between 1 April 2021 and 31 March 2022 we received 25 qualifying disclosures of information.
We concluded our enquiries on 20 of these disclosures, with five still under review. We also concluded our enquiries on two qualifying disclosures that were raised during the previous reporting period. The action we took included a full investigation through established fitness to practise processes and follow-up action through our inspection network. The former can result in any available outcome under the fitness to practise process. The latter can include guidance, a follow-up visit or an unannounced inspection.
The action we took included a full investigation through established fitness to practise processes and follow-up action through our inspection network. The former can result in any available outcome under the fitness to practise process. The latter can include guidance, a follow-up visit or an unannounced inspection.
Ten concerns were investigated and concluded with no further action. Three were signposted to another organisation. The remaining seven cases were concluded by sharing information with inspection colleagues for follow-up action.
Of the two concerns from the previous reporting period, one was concluded with no further action and the other remains under investigation.
None of the disclosures had an impact on our ability to perform our functions and meet our objectives, which are set out in the About us section at the beginning of this report.