Preparing interviews and questions

1. Regulatory Concept & Core Standards

This video's topic is preparing interviews and questions. By the end, you should be able to conduct an interview focused on facts and respectful of rights. We will connect the information available, the criterion guiding the decision and the action that must be recorded. Follow the case and compare your answer with the proposed response. An internal investigation seeks to establish facts methodically while respecting the rights involved. It does not replace the authorities or grant police powers to the team. These organisational techniques are good practice and must be adapted to applicable employment, disciplinary, criminal and data protection rules. Under section 27, provide the person concerned a fair opportunity to state their position and evidence, including through counsel; delay of initial information is exceptional and justified.

Open questions distinguish direct observation from hearsay. Section 27(3) extends its specified confidentiality and information rules to people who may hold meaningful information. Records should accurately state the source and limits of knowledge, separating the person’s account from the investigator’s interpretation.

Apply the following rule: Under section 22(6), investigation of an internal report from an unidentifiable person may be omitted. Section 49 nevertheless protects a lawful reporter who is later identified and faces the specified adverse treatment or section 42 liability situation. These are distinct questions. In the Commissioner’s protected electronic system, the person may request that only the Commissioner and the Office access their identifying data. This does not mean that nobody knows their identity.

2. Practical Implementation & Procedure

Prepare relevant topics and documents. Avoid unnecessarily showing information that suggests answers. Ask what happened before asking why. Distinguish direct recollection, assumptions and third-party information. Record faithfully and allow clarification or correction under the procedure. Close by identifying documents or people who may help verify the account. Before moving on, turn this procedure into a sequence you could explain to a colleague. Identify the first check, the action that depends on its outcome and the record that allows the decision to be reconstructed. Follow the sequence on screen and identify the point where an error would change the result.

3. Case Study & Compliance Action

A witness says everyone knew about the change. The interviewer asks what they saw, whom they spoke to and when. It emerges that the witness heard about it from just one person. The record now reflects that indirect source. Now read the case carefully. Separate established facts from information you would still need to confirm. Do not add motives or events that have not been described. This distinction matters when choosing a response proportionate to the information available.

The exercise is as follows: How should the statement ‘everyone knew’ be handled in an interview? Choose an answer and write one sentence explaining it. During the pause, compare your choice with the criteria we have just considered. Also think about the material you would retain to explain the decision later.

As an assertion needing clarification, rather than proof of widespread knowledge. Identify its concrete basis: observations, conversations and dates. Make information verifiable without pressuring the witness to confirm a hypothesis.

One mistake to avoid is: using leading questions or treating silence and hesitation as automatic proof of guilt.

Now apply the national rule to a second decision. The form always requires a name and identity document, but the page advertises anonymity. How should this be corrected?

First apply the national regime and define what the channel actually offers. Where identity is unnecessary, do not require it for technical convenience. Where it is a condition for a particular status, explain that before submission. Correct the fields and public information together while preserving material already received.