The trade union which represents staff at the Information Commissioner’s Office has demanded urgent action to address what it calls “serious concerns about workplace culture, staff wellbeing and leadership accountability” at the regulator following a workplace investigation into former commissioner John Edwards, which triggered his resignation last month.
The Public & Commercial Services Union (PCS) has written to the permanent secretary at the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology (DSIT) Emran Mian, seeking urgent engagement to discuss staff safety, organisational culture, leadership accountability and oversight of ongoing organisational change.
The union claims these events raise wider questions about the ICO’s handling of the issue, insisting it is not simply that inappropriate behaviour occurred, but that such behaviour was able to develop and persist within the organisation without being effectively challenged.
PCS’s concerns are reinforced by findings from ICO People Surveys, which have highlighted unacceptable levels of bullying, harassment and discrimination, alongside evidence that many staff do not feel psychologically safe at work. The union says it remains concerned that efforts to improve the situation must focus on addressing the underlying causes of these problems rather than simply responding to their effects.
The union has also added its voice to calls for an independent review of the ICO’s actions, amid claims of a cover-up.
The PCS stated: “[The review] must be genuinely independent, overseen by the secretary of state rather than the ICO itself, and conducted under terms of reference agreed with PCS and the recognised trade unions. The union believes that staff welfare, organisational culture and leadership accountability must be at the heart of any review if confidence among employees is to be rebuilt.
The move follows further allegations about Edwards’ behaviour, which Science Secretary Liz Kendall has already branded “vulgar and highly sexualised”.
The Times recently reported that concerns about Edwards’ judgement began at the very start of his tenure in 2022, when he shared a joke that managers considered antisemitic. It also detailed a wider pattern of crude workplace jokes, including casual references to masturbation.
In addition, when Meta’s president for global affairs, Nick Clegg, thanked the ICO for its work on end-to-end encryption, Edwards replied in front of employees and industry leaders: “Well, someone has to be on the side of the paedophiles.”
Sources told the newspaper that Edwards made a similar paedophile joke during an all-staff Christmas party in 2022, while he allegedly made a sexually explicit remark at a female colleague whose lips had turned blue after eating a cupcake, suggesting in front of staff that she appeared to have performed a sex act on a Smurf.
When contacted by The Times to answer for these findings, Edwards, who had previously claimed he had simply “exercised poor judgement”, declined to comment further.
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