E-mail this to a friend
Print this
Whistleblowing Prison Officer Wins Victimisation Claim
17 January 2008
A female prison officer has won her claim that she was subjected to detriment by H.M. Prison Service because she was a whistleblower. Emma Howie was victimised by the service because she had previously blown the whistle on wrongdoing at H.M.P Full Sutton and H.M.P Wakefield. The Employment Tribunal found that the Prison Service had failed to take seriously an earlier whistleblowing claim at the same prison,[1] despite having had to pay out nearly £500,000 compensation in that case.
Ms Howie, a 35-year-old from Wakefield, joined the Prison Service in 1997. She was described by the Leeds Employment Tribunal as "a very competent prison officer at Wakefield, having been put forward for the National Prison Officer of the Year Award in 2003."
Whistleblower
Ms Howie was subjected to detriment after she was a witness in a successful and high profile whistleblowing case in December 2004 brought by Senior Officer Carol Lingard. Ms Lingard brought the claim against the Prison Service for wrongdoing she witnessed at Wakefield Prison. She was subsequently awarded nearly £500,000 compensation and costs. Ms Howie was a witness in that case, giving evidence that was "directly material" to Ms Lingard's claim.
After the Lingard decision the Director General of the Prison Service, Mr Phil Wheatley, said the way Ms Lingard had been treated was "a regrettable and indefensible incident" and one which he did not "ever want to recur again at Wakefield or anywhere else." He said that Ms Lingard "was failed at every level in the organisation" and that the prison service needed "to learn the lessons and sharpen up our response to those sorts of complaints and be alert to the fact that when we receive complaints we must deal with them properly." But as the Leeds Employment Tribunal noted, the Prison Service "uttered fine words but failed to carry those through into meaningful actions" - again Wakefield Prison failed one of its officers.
Victimised
Ms Howie was victimised by other officers at Wakefield Prison because she gave evidence of wrongdoing at Wakefield Prison. She had given evidence about the bullying of prisoners and of hostility to whistleblowers. She complained about her treatment. As a result the Governor of Wakefield Prison launched an investigation. But, in a scathing judgment, the Tribunal found that an officer Ms Howie had accused "was effectively allowed to escape entirely free of punishment for seriously unacceptable conduct" and they were "astonished" at the handling of the investigation into Ms Howie's complaint that the Prison Officers Association branch secretary had deliberately leaked a confidential document about her in an attempt to promote hostility against her as a whistleblower. The Employment Tribunal also noted that the attempts to explain the handling of the investigation by H.M. Prison Service were "entirely inadequate" and that officers had "lied and deliberately lied". The Tribunal said they had "no difficulty whatsoever" in concluding that the reason for the handling and conclusion of the investigation was because Ms Howie was a whistleblower.
Responses to the judgment
John Sturzaker, Ms Howie's solicitor in the award-winning Employment Law Team at Russell Jones & Walker said:
"Emma Howie is a brave woman who has repeatedly done the right thing in the face of appalling pressure and has faced unacceptable hostility as a result. The Employment Tribunal has fully supported her claim and was clearly very troubled by what it heard, the more so given the findings in the Lingard case nearly three years ago. There are very serious messages in the judgment about the way in which investigations into wrongdoing are conducted within the Prison Service which need to be acted upon as a matter of urgency."
Remedy
The Tribunal will hold a separate remedy hearing to decide on the compensation to be awarded to Ms Howie.
Trials of a prison whistleblower 