Caroline Lucas – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Caroline Lucas on 2016-04-28.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 26 April 2016 to Question 34460, how many concerns have been captured centrally under the HM Revenue and Customs Whistleblowing and Raising a Concern Policy in the last five years; and how those concerns have been categorised for management of other purposes by his Department.

Mr David Gauke

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has a Whistleblowing and Raising a concern policy. Since April 2014 concerns raised under this policy have been captured centrally. Prior to this date, details were only held locally.

According to records held centrally by HMRC, for the period 1^st April 2014 to 31^st March 2015, 78 cases were logged under the Whistleblowing and Raising a Concern Policy, of which:

• 52 were defined as whistleblowers;

• 20 were defined as wrongdoing (but not whistleblowing);

• 2 were defined as grievance; and

• 4 could not be categorised.

  From 1st April 2015 to date, HMRC has received a further 91 cases, of which 18 have been defined as whistleblowers. The 18 cases were categorised as per wrongdoing type, namely:

  Payroll and Expenses 3

  Conditions of service 11

  Revenue & Benefits 3

  Assets, IT & Comms 1