I propose to take Questions Nos. 58 and 59 together.
As required under Section 22 of the Protected Disclosure Act 2014 my Department publishes an annual report setting out the number of protected disclosures made to it in the course of the immediately preceding year and certain other information relating to any such protected disclosures.
I can confirm to the Deputy that no protected disclosures have been received from officials within my Department or from any retired officials of my Department during the period in question.
The requested information in respect of submissions made to my Department under the Protected Disclosures Act during the period in question is set out in the table below. For the Deputy's convenience I can confirm that both submissions that were accepted as constituting Protected Disclosures, were processed in accordance with my Department's Policy on Disclosure of Wrongdoing in the Workplace and that in neither case was the matters referred for consideration by a third party or consultancy. No evidence was identified of any wrongdoing having occurred in either case.
Year
|
Number of submissions received
|
Number accepted as a Protected Disclosure
|
2017
|
1
|
1
|
2018
|
0
|
0
|
2019
|
2
|
1
|
2020
|
2
|
0
|
2021
|
0
|
0
|