Edinburgh council whistleblowing: QC withdraws part of report criticising councillors' comments, saying it 'may be overstated'

The QC who investigated whistleblowing at the city council has withdrawn part of her report criticising councillors for comments on a high-profile case after accepting her claims may have been "overstated".
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Susanne Tanner told a full council meeting she would remove a paragraph where she said councillors had alleged the council made a substantial payment to a witness in a criminal trial in an attempt to “gag” or “silence” her.

Although she did not identify the case, she was referring to disgraced former Castlebrae head Derek Curran and money paid to a former pupil who claimed she started having sex with him at 15 and had a child with him at 18.

Susanne Tanner presented her report at Thursday's council meetingSusanne Tanner presented her report at Thursday's council meeting
Susanne Tanner presented her report at Thursday's council meeting
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Ms Tanner said: "While those words were used in the articles, it is accepted no councillor is quoted as directly saying a payment was made to gag or silence a witness in a criminal trial.

"I do accept it may be overstated. I do not wish to distract from the wider context of my report so I'm quite happy to withdraw that paragraph and reissue the report."

But she stood by her claims about another case involving whistleblower John Travers, despite his call on her to apologise for suggesting that although a previous investigation by PwC said pornography sent to his wife came from a council email address, the consultants believed it had probably been "a network breach by perpetrators unknown.”

Ms Tanner told the council "I am content the factual position stated in the case study is correct."

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Ms Tanner’s report concluded the council did not have a “universally positive, open, safe and supportive whistleblowing and organisational culture for the raising of and responding to concerns of wrongdoing”.

And she made 50 recommendations to improve the situation.

Council leader Adam McVey said he accepted the findings and recommendations of the review and hailed the report as an opportunity to "put our organisation on firmest possible footing to support our staff and to better deliver services for residents".

And he accused the Conservatives of being “party political” by failing to take part in talks to reach a cross-party consensus on the issue.

But Tory group leader Iain Whyte said it was the Conservatives who had suggested a review in the first place.

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And he called for an independent adviser, reporting directly to councillors, to ensure the Tanner recommendations were implemented.

Tory councillor Cameron Rose said the council had been particularly poor at holding people to account.

"Where it has happened in relation to the whistleblowing cases it's been due to the courage, integrity and persistence of the whistleblowers."

He cited three long-running cases he knew about. "That adds up to almost 100 years of whistleblowers going through not being believed, not having the action, justice, accountability or the appropriate investigation – and that's crushing.

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"There are quite few more people out there who have not come forward because they have seen what's happened."

SNP councillor Alison Dickie said: "It is an act of integrity and bravery to whistleblow. I have helped support some who are featured in this report and I know them to be inspirational people.

"Our commitment to whistleblowing will not just be seen in how we implement these recommendations, but how we seek to resolve the matters that are still outstanding."

Read More
Edinburgh council whistleblower calls on QC to apologise over comments in report

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