Recommendation 18

We asked the Cabinet Office if any interviews are undertaken with whistleblowers to capture their perspective of the experience. It told us it is not aware of interviews taking place currently. There was a hesitancy from the Cabinet Office on the method of capturing feedback as it believed this could create a potential barrier to people coming forward.45 But it also told us that it agreed with the recommendation from the NAO about putting in place a process for collecting whistleblowers’ experiences and feedback, and would work with departments to ensure that happens.46 DWP noted that user experience is something that it is actively looking to put in place as soon as it possibly can, because it recognises it is a gap. It told us it is working with Cabinet Office to introduce a whistleblower survey in the department from May this year, where the whistleblower is known, to help it understand their experience.47