As required under the relevant legislation, my Department has a Protected Disclosures Policy in place under which a staff member who wishes to make a protected disclosure may do so to any of the following confidential recipients:
- an independent confidential service engaged for this purpose;
- the Head of the Internal Audit Unit in the Department, or
- any member of the Department’s Management Board.
Contact details for all of the above confidential recipients, as well as procedures for making a protected disclosure, are contained in the policy document which has been circulated to all staff and which is also available on the Department's intranet platform.
The numbers of Protected Disclosures received in the Department to date are:
2015 - Nil
2016 - Three
2017 - Two
2018 - One
2019 - Nil.