Recommendation 23

The Cabinet Office guidance specifies that departments should cover their agencies as well as themselves when responding to health checks, but this is not followed by all 48 Qq 80, 82 49 Q 2 50 NAO insight - good practice guide, Whistleblowing in the civil service, 21 February 2024 51 C&AG’s Report, Figure 4 52 Qq 52, 53 53 Qq 1, 12 54 C&AG’s Report, para 3.11 55 Q 3 56 Q 33 57 Q 21 58 C&AG’s Report Figures 6, 9 59 Q 21 60 Q 12 14 Investigation into whistleblowing in the civil service departments.61 The Cabinet Office noted that the nature of the relationships between departments and arm’s-length bodies can vary across the civil service, departments have different working practices and so it expected that there would be some slight variances. The Cabinet Office told us it was talking to departments about how they can be more consistent in how they account for whistleblowing in their arm’s-length bodies and ensure these bodies are also following the policy.62