UK rail minister got engineer sacked for raising safety concerns

[BrianW]

Such damage pales in the face of the damage Hendy has done now. Ministers and Lords are quite rightly held to a higher standard than random engineers.

Hendy's threat is essentially existential for Systra's UK operation.
They have no option but to get rid of him.

'Who will rid me of this troublesome priest' a recipe down the years for dealing with criticism.

Upthread, someone referred to the Challenger tragedy. Folk must be empowered and encouraged to speak truth to power, however uncomfortable to receive.

Organisations should have published Whistleblowing Policies.

The letter from Peter Hendy on 14 May (post #31) is addressed as Chair of Network Rail. On 8 July 2024 he was appointed to Keir Starmer's new Labour government as a minister of state in the Department for Transport. Did the Chair not tyake advice from those around him? A bold decision ...

Parliament resumes next week; The MP for Holborn and St Pancras, which IIUC includes Euston Station, will be accountable to 'the country', including I imagine PMQs on Wednesday. Saftey at one of the nation's busiest stations and behaviour of government ministers must surely be matters worthy of question.

The Nolan Principles are important, and I imagine will be wished to be seen to be upheld in government and by public servants generally.

 

[Snow1964]

The Guardian has now run the story too

The new rail minister threatened in a previous role to withhold public contracts from one of the UK’s largest engineering groups until it disciplined a senior engineer for raising concerns about safety at one of London’s busiest train stations.

In his former role as chair of Network Rail, Peter Hendy threatened Systra UK, which counts Network Rail among its main clients, with losing business not only from the public body but also its supply chain.

He told Network Rail officials to “deal with” the engineer, Gareth Dennis, and said the Systra CEO should be sent a “stop and desist” letter with a request for disciplinary action against Dennis.

In an email to Systra, Lord Hendy said “the allegation that Network Rail is running an unsafe operation is a serious one” and added: “Employees here know that what they say in the media reflects on their employment, and I should like confirmation that your employees understand that too.”

Six days after Hendy’s letter to Systra on 14 May, Dennis was placed on suspension while an investigation was carried out into his comments in an Independent article published a month earlier in which he raised concerns that overcrowding at Euston station was unsafe. Hendy’s complaint was cited in the suspension letter that Dennis received on 20 May.

Further emails show that on 24 May Dennis was offered a financial settlement to leave Systra on the condition that he sign an agreement with a confidentiality clause. He did not sign it, and on 8 July he was dismissed with four weeks’ notice after a disciplinary hearing.

Dennis, who has a one-year-old child, won the 2024 Young Rail Professionals distinguished service award. He said the minister’s intervention “exposes Hendy’s hypocrisy and the industry’s failure to address safety and accessibility issues”.

Ex-Network Rail chair threatened firm over engineer’s Euston criticism

Letter shows Peter Hendy, now the rail minister, threatened to withhold public contracts until firm disciplined worker

www.theguardian.com

 

[MatthewHutton]

As an aside, that article claims that one cause of the huge crowds is that Euston has 6 times as many trains today as it did in the 1960s. Can that really be true? Today Euston's weekly daytime service is I believe 9tph Avanti, 7tph LNWR/WMT, 4tph Overground, total 20tph. For that to be 6 times as many, Euston would have to have typically seen only 3 or 4 departures per hour in total during the 1960s. That seems implausible.

Hourly Birmingham, hourly Manchester, 2 hourly Liverpool, 2 hourly Glasgow. And didn't the overground ones go into Broad Street?

Also they run longer hours now I am sure.

 

[MarlowDonkey]

Hourly Birmingham, hourly Manchester, 2 hourly Liverpool, 2 hourly Glasgow. And didn't the overground ones go into Broad Street?

Apart from the occasional peak hour service, the DC lines service to Watford Junction ran from Euston. There would also be the "outer suburban" stopping services.

 

[Starmill]

I don't see how Gareth's quote to the Independent enabled the above to happen or was the most appropriate mechanism to get those answers. I don't think anyone comes out looking good in this. I'm not advocating for the Network Rail response either or the potential lack of consideration by Systra that their employee policies might not match client expectations or agreements.

Perhaps it was more appropriate, and perhaps it was less appropriate. To me I can only understand one single change, i.e. more information screens, a change which still has not been made to date, and is only reversing a previous degradation of information. I agree, though, we probably can't draw more of a conclusion than that.

However, for Dennis himself, the negative consequences are restricted to his good name and his career. Obviously these are significant and worthy of a conversation - I don't intend to minimise them. However, for Hendy the stakes are far higher. He was in a position of authority over the safety of the general public. Now he is in office as a Minister of the Crown and a member of the Government. Throughout he was a member of the House of Lords. These are special responsibilities which he freely volunteered for. Hendy therefore owes a special set of duties to the public, and the country, which Dennis doesn't, beyond what any other professional officer worker would.

 

[Merle Haggard]

Hourly Birmingham, hourly Manchester, 2 hourly Liverpool, 2 hourly Glasgow. And didn't the overground ones go into Broad Street?

Also they run longer hours now I am sure.

That seems like just expresses; depends exactly when but also 1 ph Northampton - Birmingham and 1 ph Euston - Bletchley. D.C.s, 3 p.h..
These are after electrification; it wouldn't be fair to compare with the slim service while the work was taking place but you never know
Longer hours? There were much later departures and earlier arrivals than now; the station never closed at night

 

[Starmill]

Now we have that, it would perhaps be better to give people like Hendy a chance to run things for a bit, rather than skewering him on a technicality and replacing him with another non-expert MP.

I would just like to point out that Ministers aren't usually subject matter experts because that's not actually their constitutional role. I'm not saying there could never be any advantage in it, I'm sure in fact that there could be, just that the system is designed to work perfectly well without it and generally that's not the part of the system that's broken.

Many of us wanted a change at the election from people who were obsessed with image and playing politics to people who actually wanted to run the country.

I'd say it's fair to charge Hendy with being obsessed with his image and playing politics, because the letter is hard evidence of him doing precisely that.

 

[CapabilityB]

Upthread, someone referred to the Challenger tragedy. Folk must be empowered and encouraged to speak truth to power, however uncomfortable to receive.

But surely there's a difference in just confidently stating something is unsafe because you believe that to be true, and evidencing that statement based on specific expertise and facts.

Unfortunately Gareth's whole thing is stating what he believes with utmost confidence as if it is gospel and he must know best.

My point isn't to debate if Euston is or isn't safe. I just think there's definitely an angle here of Gareth being the boy who cried wolf (not always about safety) and finally got caught out.

 

[Starmill]

Being an "expert" emphatically does not exempt Hendy from practicing normal standards in public life. I hope that a select committee gives him hell!

I'd say his being considered a subject matter expert is actually a reason to probe his ethical conduct even more than usual, not less. For example, he could have used his very uncommon technical acumen to pull the wool over Haigh's eyes about his fitness for high office and leadership qualities.

 

[43066]

Yes and no. His employer didn’t have any problem with what he said until Hendy complained. One person, regardless of their position, should never be able to get someone at a different company sacked just because they didn’t like something that person said.

I do agree with the sentiment of that. But if that “one person” happens to be the boss of an organisation which pays your employer millions of pounds per year, and you have gone public and started accusing them of running an unsafe operation, then it’s likely you’ll be sacked. Money talks.

For the record I agree that Hendy sounds like an odious individual, especially based on some of the other things that have been reported; “grubby little man”, as used upthread, seems very apt!

There’s nothing necessarily to say that Dennis hadn’t already approached the relevant safety bodies and got nowhere. When that happens, what else are you supposed to do? The Post Office scandal, whilst not directly comparable, is a good example of why whistleblowers should be able to go public if the relevant bodies fail to act accordingly.

It depends on how much you need the income versus how much you value the principle. Most employees would probably not be able to afford to risk being sacked for making inadvisable public statements,
so would keep schtum.

Ultimately if people follow the process of reporting issues and the regulators fail people might quite reasonably feel they’ve done all they can, but they can’t afford to lose their jobs over a point of principle.

Of course it may also affect future employment as prospective employers do social media searches, google peoples’ names and see what comes up. It isn’t illegal to discriminate against people who have publicly shamed their former employers.

This guy is clearly no idiot, and he must have known he would be sacked as a result of this. So presumably he doesn’t need the income from the job, or has calculated that kicking up a stink and getting himself fired will result in publicity for his YouTube channel (or whatever) that will be more beneficial long term.

This action by Network Rail functionally demands that everyone, at all times and in all situations (when someone might hear/see), never voice any position on anything related to the railway that is not approved by them.

When Network Rail releases a press release or other statement claiming something, noone in the rail industry (all of which is functionally under the control of the state) will be permitted to criticise, disagree or otherwise voice disquiet.

I think this is a little strong. It really just boils down to employees of NR, or companies of whom they’re a client, being bound by social media policies. That’s pretty much standard across the board these days.

 

[LUYMun]

I'm not a big fan of Gareth Dennis, having heard his views on various subjects that weren't up to par for an engineer like him, such as him dismissing what light rail is and what types of modes should be called. I wouldn't go as far as wishing anyone to lose their jobs, but knowing his behaviour and the response to current controversy, all I can say is that both him and Lord Hendy are throwing their toys at each other's prams. Hendy's letter and his Wikipedia article being changed being case in point.

 

[GRALISTAIR]

BTW - hopefully not considered OT, but I have lived in the USA for 24 years so not sure how the job market works in the UK. What are the realistic chances of Gareth Dennis getting another job in the Railway industry? In other words, how is his career going to be affected?

 

[Bletchleyite]

BTW - hopefully not considered OT, but I have lived in the USA for 24 years so not sure how the job market works in the UK. What are the realistic chances of Gareth Dennis getting another job in the Railway industry? In other words, how is his career going to be affected?

I suspect his next move is probably going to be into railway journalism rather than engineering.

 

[GRALISTAIR]

Interesting, he vas "voted" one of the greatest influencers on the railways - number 2!

Biggest influencers in railways in Q3 2020: The top individuals to follow

GlobalData research has found the biggest influencers in railways based on their performance and engagement online.

www.railway-technology.com

2. Gareth Dennis (@GarethDennis)​

Gareth Dennis is a rail consultant and engineer who specialises in railway systems. He is the senior permanent way engineer for Arcadis, a civil and engineering company. He is a regular contributor for the RAIL magazine and other technical publications.

Dennis hosts a transport podcast, Rail Natter, which features guests such as Lucy Prior, John Elledge, and Tim Dunn. He also appears on several TV channels such as BBC, Sky News and ITV to discuss railway engineering and transport policies.

 

[dosxuk]

I'm surprised he reached directly for the 'nuclear' option of threatening to withhold contracts unless he was fired right away.

I think you're over-reading (with some element of hindsight) the contents of Hendy's letter - at no point does it call for the sacking of Dennis.

There were multiple options open to Systra which would have enabled Dennis to remain and employee and for Network Rail to remain a customer of theirs. A simple "We would like to confirm that Mr Dennis was not acting as a representative of Systra UK when he made the comments to the media. We have reminded Mr Dennis of the additional responsibilities he holds as an employee around talking to the media and he has agreed to ensure that he will ensure that future comment will be clearly marked as being his personal opinion and not that of his employers" - would probably have been enough to satisfy Hendy / Network Rail. I would be amazed if discussions along those lines weren't attempted by Systra - however, I'm also not surprised that it ended up with him being sacked for gross misconduct.

These types of incident happen all the time, normally involving social media. A verbal reminder is the normal result. To end up with a sacking suggests there was more to the follow up than has been reported.

 

[Bluejays]

I had to laugh that he gave the supplier in question a London 2012 badge as well.

For a particularly good performance maybe .....

 

[dcs34]

I think you're over-reading (with some element of hindsight) the contents of Hendy's letter - at no point does it call for the sacking of Dennis.

These types of incident happen all the time, normally involving social media. A verbal reminder is the normal result. To end up with a sacking suggests there was more to the follow up than has been reported.

The only reason the Chair of an organisation sends a letter like this to a supplier is to get that person sacked. He doesn't have to make the demand explicit in order to make it obvious.

 

[WelshBluebird]

think you're over-reading (with some element of hindsight) the contents of Hendy's letter - at no point does it call for the sacking of Dennis.

And I'd suggest you are failing to read between the lines.

 

[Dr Hoo]

As an aside, that article claims that one cause of the huge crowds is that Euston has 6 times as many trains today as it did in the 1960s. Can that really be true? Today Euston's weekly daytime service is I believe 9tph Avanti, 7tph LNWR/WMT, 4tph Overground, total 20tph. For that to be 6 times as many, Euston would have to have typically seen only 3 or 4 departures per hour in total during the 1960s. That seems implausible.

Although not directly related to the Hendy/Dennis question it is worth noting that the original Independent article was rather wide of the mark. The issue of 'crowding' is, after all concentrated at the busiest times.

I looked back at the Friday evening peak in 1968. The 'new' Euston only opened fairly late in that year. It wasn't open when greatly reduced services operated during the electrification. Between around 1730 and 1830 there were 4 Watford 'DC' departures, 8 Fast line 'InterCity' and 5 Slow Line 'Residentials' to Bletchley and Northampton. I.e. 17 in total.

It was always expected that the station would become much busier, either through diversions from the Midland Main Line or from growth with the new electric services.

By 1975, when I often passed through on Friday evenings, the station had become very busy. The Watford DC had gone down to 3 departures but the Fast Lines gone up to 11 tph (including the fast Northampton 'Cobbler') and the Slow Lines up to 11 as well, so 25 departures in less than 60 minutes.

In some ways the concourse was smaller than it is today in terms of usable space, e.g. the positioning of the Underground and taxi rank entrances, the local ticket office and retail units along the 'ramp line'. The famous falling-flap 'Solari' indicator only had 10 columns squeezed between the illuminated cigarette ads and one of those was reserved for the Watford DC. So with only 9 columns available for AC departures the 'visible horizon' could be as little as 22 minutes, which might contain only three InterCity departures. There was no alternative or 'subsequent departures' display. Things could be quite hairy as whole trainloads of Scottish or further North West (beyond Weaver Junction) passengers built up as tidings of their 'next train' were anxiously awaited. This situation was recognised as seriously sub-optimal and memos bounced back and forth between the station, division and region saying the 'something must be done'. I was working in one of the offices that handled them.

There is nothing new about crowding and 'surges' at Euston.

 

[43066]

I suspect his next move is probably going to be into railway journalism rather than engineering.

Interesting, he vas "voted" one of the greatest influencers on the railways - number 2!

Biggest influencers in railways in Q3 2020: The top individuals to follow

GlobalData research has found the biggest influencers in railways based on their performance and engagement online.

www.railway-technology.com

Yes - there’s definitely a whiff of a deliberate career move being made here!

 

[LUYMun]

I suspect his next move is probably going to be into railway journalism rather than engineering.

Guess he’ll become the next Wolmar…

 

[DJ_K666]

This is spectacularly dumb of Hendy on two fronts.

Second, Gareth Dennis is well known as a media commentator. He obviously has contacts in the media. Hendy, in May, was presumably either negotiating - or had already agreed - his appointment with the incoming Government. Did he not stop for 15 seconds to think that getting someone with good media connections fired might possibly lead to the teensiest little bit of trouble in his new job?

If Mr. Dennis has media connections then he really ought to be picking up the phone and making use of them. Especially if Euston can be proven unsafe (It definitely is)
It's hopefully going to make Hendy's position extremely uncomfortable. In an ideal world, having NR (or any other big corporate entity) try to shut someone up ought to actually cause them to pull out a metaphorical megaphone.

From what I read it seemed that they tried to make him sign a gagging order and he told them to poke it.

 

[takno]

Guess he’ll become the next Wolmar…

I don't think they'll let him stand for Labour in Richmond now

 

[Starmill]

It’s not unethical at all. It’s pretty standard in employment contracts about not bringing your employer’s business into disrepute. So it is less than wise to spout off about your employer’s customer. Dennis has done that - and has a lengthy rap sheet - so it’s not a surprise the customer isn’t happy.

It’s another example of “biting the hand that feeds you”.

It's most definitely unethical. They offered Dennis a contract with a media agreement for a good reason, but as soon as they were threatened with a dodgy business practice by Hendy, they capitulated. They should have stood up for Dennis' right to speak independently because that's what their agreement with him allowed.

The customer (i.e. the Network Rail board, including Hendy) had no right to be unhappy with the statement made. They should have accepted it as fact. They themselves did so at a previous opportunity, just very, very quietly.

There were multiple options open to Systra which would have enabled Dennis to remain and employee and for Network Rail to remain a customer of theirs. A simple "We would like to confirm that Mr Dennis was not acting as a representative of Systra UK when he made the comments to the media. We have reminded Mr Dennis of the additional responsibilities he holds as an employee around talking to the media and he has agreed to ensure that he will ensure that future comment will be clearly marked as being his personal opinion and not that of his employers" - would probably have been enough to satisfy Hendy / Network Rail. I would be amazed if discussions along those lines weren't attempted by Systra - however, I'm also not surprised that it ended up with him being sacked for gross misconduct.

Hendy's follow-up reply to the attempt by Salt at damage limitation makes it plain these options didn't exist.

Hendy sought to influence Systra to sack Dennis for personal reasons, abusing his role at Network Rail in the process. It's as straightforward as that, he's literally written it out for us all to see.

 

[nr758123]

If Mr. Dennis has media connections then he really ought to be picking up the phone and making use of them.

It's looking like Mr Dennis has lots of media contacts and knows how to make full use of them.

 

[Starmill]

These types of incident happen all the time, normally involving social media. A verbal reminder is the normal result. To end up with a sacking suggests there was more to the follow up than has been reported.

They don't happen all the time. It's very rare for someone in a state office, with the influence to tank a large business, to writes to them about one single individual member of staff. That's the whole reason Hendy is receiving opprobium.

 

[43096]

It's most definitely unethical. They offered Dennis a contract with a media agreement for a good reason, but as soon as they were threatened with a dodgy business practice by Hendy, they capitulated. They should have stood up for Dennis' right to speak independently because that's what their agreement with him allowed.

The customer (i.e. the Network Rail board, including Hendy) had no right to be unhappy with the statement made. They should have accepted it as fact. They themselves did so at a previous opportunity, just very, very quietly.

We'll have to agree to disagree then.

Systra must be pretty dumb not to have looked at Dennis's record of shouting his gob off before employing him - they should have known they were playing with fire.

NR are completely within their rights to want Systra to deal with him.

 

[DJ_K666]

It's looking like Mr Dennis has lots of media contacts and knows how to make full use of them.

I really hope so. I just publicly sent Hendy a message on X starting 'Oy! Hendy.' I hope that annoys him If he's as curmudgeon as everyone says he is he'll bite

It's most definitely unethical. They offered Dennis a contract with a media agreement for a good reason, but as soon as they were threatened with a dodgy business practice by Hendy, they capitulated. They should have stood up for Dennis' right to speak independently because that's what their agreement with him allowed.

The customer (i.e. the Network Rail board, including Hendy) had no right to be unhappy with the statement made. They should have accepted it as fact. They themselves did so at a previous opportunity, just very, very quietly.


Hendy's follow-up reply to the attempt by Salt at damage limitation makes it plain these options didn't exist.

Hendy sought to influence Systra to sack Dennis for personal reasons, abusing his role at Network Rail in the process. It's as straightforward as that, he's literally written it out for us all to see.

Could Systra have just told Hendy they'd sacked him and just...not have done?

 

[redreni]

The timing of this, just as the then Leader of the Opposition (now PM) would have been choosing Ministers, is quite interesting.

Who knows, perhaps Lord Hendy wanted show he has an authoritarian streak, and thus that he would fit in? We are talking about a government that, in its first few weeks in office, has already had at least 3 journalists arrested and one held for several hours under Section 12 of the Terrorism Act.

Whatever his motivation, I hope it will backfire. I hope most people can see that whether Gareth Dennis's conduct was wise or not, whether it was naive or not, whether this particular issue was within his field of expertise or not, the chilling effect of allowing this kind of reprisal to stand will mean people in the industry will keep quiet about failings that will ultimately kill people.

Could Systra have just told Hendy they'd sacked him and just...not have done?

They didn't sack him until after Hendy had left Network Rail. So if the issue was specifically Hendy, one wonders why when Hendy went away they didn't just conclude their investigation, issue Dennis with a formal warning, let him come back to work and move on? Unless they feared he would use his new position to direct Network Rail to carry out his earlier threat?

 

[Starmill]

Systra must be pretty dumb not to have looked at Dennis's record of shouting his gob off before employing him - they should have known they were playing with fire.

They specifically hired him because of that record. It was all written into his contract he'd have this media role. They also had no issues with the comments until Hendy made his unethical intervention.

NR are completely within their rights to want Systra to deal with him.

They are required to follow the principles of managing public money. They have no right whatsoever to use public money to go interfering with a private company's staff. That's the definition of misconduct in public office.