davidhencke

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Sexual harassment at work to be treated as a whistleblower complaint under new employment law

But no answers from the ministry on plans to cost and scope the establishment of an Office of the Whistleblower The Department for Business and Trade is changing the law to strengthen the right of people to report sexual harassment at work by making it a protective disclosure under whistleblowing legislation. Bizarrely this measure was missed by mainstream media when the bill was published last…

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Judge reserves judgement on whether a top legal firm should pay wasted costs for hiding documents that removed 54,000 English doctors from the UK's legal whistleblowing protection in the Public Interest Disclosure Act

Dr Chris Day The latest in the long saga of employment tribunal hearings involving whistleblower doctor Chris Day and his ten year fight for justice over patient safety following the avoidable deaths of two patients in the intensive care unit at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Woolwich ended with a judge reserving her decision. This particular hearing concerned the role of top NHS lawyers Hill…

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Social Security watchdog warns ministers of flaws in the scheme to scrap pensioner winter fuel allowances

Department for Work and Pensions In a polite but tough message to Liz Kendall, the work and pensions secretary, the Government’s official advisory body on social security, has exposed flaws in the government’s implementation of its rushed policy to abolish winter fuel allowances for 9.3 million pensioners and encourage the poorest to claim pension credit. It also undermines the government’s…

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How a leading teaching hospital and a coroner failed a young woman who was brain dead 17 hours after being admitted to A & E

Gaia Young Case for a new inquest after coroner Mary Hassell failed to find adequate explanation for her death This is an extremely tragic tale of what happened when a 25 year old healthy and talented woman, Gaia Young, was rushed to accident and emergency with severe headaches only to die of an unexplained brain condition and doctors have yet to correctly diagnose what was wrong with her. The…

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Millions of pensioners on or just above the poverty line will lose winter fuel allowance - Age UK research

The government’s refusal to publish a proper impact study of exactly who will be the worst off from the abolition of the winter fuel allowance for 10.8 million pensioners was one of the worst acts of this new Labour government. Not only was it bad government not to provide the facts on such a big change for so many people but it looks like a deliberate act to conceal the damage ministers knew it…

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How come an NHS Trust can win a national diversity award when its ethnic minority staff are reporting bullying and discrimination?

This weekend Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Foundation Trust won a national award for its diversity and inclusion just after a still to be published national staff survey reveals a high level of dissatisfaction about discrimination and bullying among its employees. The trust which has one of the highest proportion of ethnic minority staff in the country is one of the Excel HPMA award winners. The…

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My interview on the 50swomen pensions scandal and the scrapping of the pensioner's winter fuel allowance

If pensioners die from winter cold should their gravestones be engraved with the words ” Frozen to Death by Rachel Reeves and Sir Keir Starmer ” for eternity? This is the recording of my interview last night with Ian Rothwell of Salford City Radio on the failure of the government to agree yet to any compensation for the women born in the 1950s who had to wait six more years to get their pension…

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Time for a full scale investigation into the abusive and bullying behaviour towards women by Judge Philip Lancaster

Judge Philip Lancaster Pic Credit BBC News New revelations by the BBC TV journalist Michael Buchanan today show what appears to be serial bullying and abuse towards women claimants by Judge Philip Lancaster at employment tribunal hearings His news report today reveals that eight women have now separately come forward to say they were badly treated when they presented their cases before the…

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Ministry of Justice and Lady Chief Justice Dame Sue Carr refuse to explain the lawfulness of withholding official ET court records

05/07/2024. London, United Kingdom.Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice, Shabana Mahmood. poses for a photograph following her appointment to Cabinet by Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer in 10 Downing Street. Picture by Lauren Hurley / No 10 Downing Street By David Hencke and Alison McDermott Direct complaint to the Lord Chancellor signed by 150 people is being blocked by officials at…

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Winter Fuel Allowance: Equality statement reveals the scale of Rachel Reeves nasty blow to poor and disabled women pensioners

05/07/2024. London, United Kingdom. Rachel Reeves, Chancellor of the Exchequer poses for a photograph following her appointment to Cabinet by Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer in 10 Downing Street. Picture by Lauren Hurley / No 10 Downing Street Chancellor’s decision fuels racism when it is revealed her cuts are aimed at 95 per cent of white British born people At last no doubt embarrassed by the…

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Exclusive: Northiam, the picture postcard Sussex village that hides a fractious community of hate and harassment

Northiam village By David Hencke and Joseph Eden An alleged horse murder, police protection at a parish meeting and council office and notice board defaced with hated filled graffiti You could not imagine a more bucolic English scene. Beautiful rolling Sussex countryside, white painted country cottages, a heritage steam railway running by the village and Bodiam Castle, an imposing moated…

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How Starmer and Reeves pension savings are deliberately driving the elderly to an early grave

1950s born women to face a quadruple whammy to their hopes over compensation, heating allowances, fuel bills and new taxes Sir Keir Starmer in the Cabinet Room Pic credit: Gov Uk In just 50 days of a new Labour government pensioners rather than the better off have been singled out to pay the price to balance the books of running the country. They are the people who are often not in the best of…

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The extraordinary failure by the Solicitors Regulation Authority to police lawyers who misuse non disclosure agreements to silence whistleblowers and employees

If you were thinking of complaining about your employer’s solicitor trying to force you to sign a NDA barring you from complaining to the police, another regulator, or ban you from making freedom of information (FOI) requests or subject access requests to your company or public body, you might as well not bother. For new figures released this year following a request under the SRA’s voluntary…

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The Solicitors Regulation Authority isn't " fit for purpose" to protect the public and whistleblowers

Solicitors Regulation Authority logo There appears to be growing evidence that the Solicitors Regulation Authority,(SRA), the body that regulates and upholds professional standards for lawyers, is inconsistent in its judgements, over sympathetic to lawyers, particularly from large firms, and is not regarded by the public and whistleblowers as protecting their interests. I took up the treatment…

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Time to ask the Lord Chancellor to intervene to make employment tribunal transcripts available and release judge's notes

Shabana Mahmood, Labour’s new Lord Chancellor Please sign letter by whistleblower to Shabana Mahmood Two years ago some 317 people agreed to sign a letter to Sir Keith Lindblom, senior president of the tribunals, calling for transcripts and recordings of employment tribunal cases to be made available. Employment tribunals appeared to be one of the few legal proceedings where records were not…

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Judge quashes £10,000 costs order against rail safety whistleblower

One of Vossloh Cogifer UK Ltd biggest projects: Supplying 149 sets of points outside London Bridge Station Pic credit: Network Rail. Nigel Midgley, a former employee with Vossloh Cognifer, a private contractor to Network Rail, who was dismissed after he reported rail safety issues to the Health and Safety Executive, today got a £10,000 costs order quashed by a judge at an Employment Appeal…

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Pressure for action on 50swomen pensions pay out delivered to Number Ten

Delegation at No 10. (L to R) Ioan Bellin (Senior Communications and Research Officer for Delyth Jewell MS Senedd Wales);Vivienne Porritt OBE – WomenEd;Janice Chapman (CEDAWinLAW Volunteer):Michaela Hawkins (CEDAWinLAW Volunteer) and Ian Byrne, MP. A delegation including Liverpool Mp Ian Byrne and former Australian judge Jocelynne Scutt yesterday increased pressure on Sir Keir Starmer, to start…