§ Mr. WebbTo ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions pursuant to his answer of 16 June 2003,Official Report, column 100W, on the Whistleblowers Hotline, what the costs of administrating the Hotline were in each year since its introduction. [122772]
851W
§ Mr. PondThe Department's Whistleblowers Hotline was established in December 2000 and is available to any member of staff who wants to report possible wrongdoing anywhere in the Department but who does not want to report their concerns through the usual management channels.
There was only a marginal increase in administration costs e.g. dedicated phone-line and publicity material, for the introduction of the Whistleblowers Hotline as the facility is supervised by staff who were already involved in the prevention, deterrence and investigation of cases of internal fraud. We estimate these marginal costs to be less than £5,000 per annum.