Independent Complaints and Grievance Policy

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 12:02 pm on 8 February 2018.

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Photo of Andrea Leadsom Andrea Leadsom Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons 12:02, 8 February 2018

The hon. Gentleman is exactly right, and that goes to the heart of the challenge of ensuring that the complainant’s desire not to be all over the newspapers and social media is respected and upheld. The two services—one dealing with sexual harassment and the other with bullying and intimidation—will be independent and procured by the House authorities on behalf of the House, and they will have strict procedures for confidentiality. As would be expected, should those procedures be breached—for whatever reason—there would be severe consequences. Confidentiality will be a key part of that. Similarly, the working group proposes that the processes of the commissioner for standards should also be strictly confidential, and having met her, I am absolutely sure that she will uphold that need for confidentiality. My expectation is that all those involved in the investigatory process will uphold the need for complainant confidentiality.