In May 2022, the Head of the Civil Service and the Permanent Secretaries for the Departments of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) and the Department of Finance (DoF), jointly commissioned an Independent External Review into the handling of concerns and other serious matters, raised in a case taken by a former DAERA employee.
The report was published in January 2023, along with an action plan in response to the findings of the review.
A progress report in implementing the action plan was published in May 2023.
This action plan has included the completion and publication of a Raising a Concern Policy Framework for the NICS as a whole.