Raising a concern

Raising a concern in the public interest

Raising a concern is when you disclose information about a suspected danger, wrongdoing or illegality that is in the public interest. This means it affects other people. To raise a concern, you don’t need to be personally affected by the danger, wrongdoing or illegality – you simply want to alert other people.

Raising Concerns policy

We have a policy on how we handle concerns that are raised to Belfast City Council. If you’re a council employee or a member of the public, you can contact us to raise a concern about a danger, wrongdoing or illegality which relates to the council. Contact us if you want to read our policy.

We treat all concerns that are raised in strict confidence. We hold all personal data securely in compliance with the Data Protection Act and the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR).

Complaints 

Raising a concern is not the same as making a complaint. If you want to complain to the council, you should use our complaints process. This is explained in our Complaints Handling Procedure.

How to raise a concern

There are different ways to raise a concern with us. You can:

• Raise your concern by email

Email our dedicated Raising Concerns mailbox [email protected].

• Raise your concern in writing, by telephone or in person

Write to, call or arrange a meeting with one of our Raising Concerns Champions, Liam Mulholland or Cathy Haughey.

Our postal address is: Corporate Services, 9-21 Adelaide Street, Belfast BT2 8DJ. Our telephone number is: 028 9032 0202.

Raise your concern with a regulator

We recognise there might be circumstances where you want to report your concern to an external organisation, such as a regulator. Before doing this, you can get independent advice. Protect is an independent, charitable organisation that runs a free, confidential whistleblowing advice line.To contact Protect, call 020 3117 2520 or go to Protect (link opens in new window). 

Report your concern to the Northern Ireland Audit Office

You can report a concern about the council to the Local Government Auditor in the Northern Ireland Audit Office (link opens in new window). 

How we respond if you raise a concern

Within seven days of receiving your concern, we will acknowledge we have received your concern and explain how we propose to deal with the matter.

We will inform you of the outcome of any enquiries or investigations we undertake. This is subject to legal constraints.