Ignoring whistleblowers should never be acceptable – Protect responds to the Grenfell Tower Inquiry

The residents of Grenfell Tower were “badly failed” over a number of years in “a number of different ways” by those who were responsible for the safety of the building and its occupants.

Among those, the inquiry lists the government, the tenant management organisation, the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, those who manufactured and supplied the materials used in the refurbishment, those who certified their suitability for use on high-rise buildings, the architect, the principal contractor and some of its sub-contractors and the London Fire Brigade.

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Following the publication of the Grenfell Tower Inquiry’s final report Andrew Pepper-Parsons , Director of Policy of whistleblowing charity Protect, said:

“Protect’s thoughts today are with the victims of the horrific Grenfell fire and their loved ones.?We must never forget the 72 lives lost and must ensure such a tragedy never occurs again.?

A culture of “buck-passing” and “systemic dishonesty” of companies who produced the highly-flammable building cladding, and a campaign of de-regulation by the Government all contributed to the devastating fire that killed 72 people.

It's clear from this report that there were whistleblowers who tried to speak up and raise their concerns - but were silenced and dismissed by their employers and superiors. From the workers and contractors involved in the tower’s refurbishment, to the former employees of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC) and the Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation (KCTMO) safety concerns were repeatedly raised but systematically ignored.

Within government itself civil servants’ concerns about matters of fire safety were “ignored, delayed or disregarded”. ?A recent National Audit Office report found only around half (52%) of civil servants think that it is “safe to challenge the way things are done”.?We need whistleblowers to come forward when they see wrongdoing inside government and feel safe when they do so.?If they don’t feel safe, they may not raise concerns at all.?

We welcome the report’s recommendations for stronger regulation – but we must ensure that when people speak up to share critical concerns they are listened to and there is a duty on those in leadership positions to address the issues they raise. However good the regulator, law or company policies, there is too often a disconnect in the implementation of whistleblowing policies and the treatment of whistleblowers.

Currently contractors and freelancers are not always protected by the law, and there is no obligation for companies to follow up on concerns raised from staff or via their supply chains, regardless of the seriousness of the concern or whether they are about the safety of residents. We need to see a duty placed on employers to investigate whistleblowing concerns: ignoring whistleblowers should never be acceptable.

From the Infected Blood scandal, the disgrace of the Post Office Horizon system and now the Grenfell Tower tragedy – the failure to act on whistleblowers’ concerns had a significant impact on events. The Grenfell Tower Inquiry has uncovered a pattern of ignored warnings and dismissed whistleblowers that contributed to the tragic loss of life. This failure to act on concerns has played a critical role in the disaster and its aftermath.”