Parliament’s reforms ‘not sufficient’

The Unite general union has called for “root and branch reform of employment practices” following publication of the White report into parliamentary bullying. It says the report, by Gemma White QC, confirms that reforms agreed by Parliament last year were not sufficient. 


It wants Parliament to seek urgent assistance from the Acas employment advisory service to facilitate an agreement between the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority and unions, including full union recognition. 


Garry Graham, deputy general secretary of the Prospect professionals’ union said the working culture in Parliament “has clearly been toxic for too long”. And he said “it speaks volumes” that only 34 out of 650 MPs have attended or booked into new training introduced following scandalous revelations about the culture in Parliament last year. 


The general secretary of the FDA senior civil service union, Dave Penman, had earlier commented that MPs had “blown their chance” to investigate complaints made by fellow MPs. 


Unions want to see a fully independent complaints process for House of Commons staff and the full investigation of historical allegations. The current system only deals with complaints about events that have taken place since the 2017 general election. 


As Labour Research went to press, the House of Commons had just voted to extend investigations into bullying and harassment by MPs to historical allegations as recommended by White. This will remove the June 2017 cut-off date.