RNLI chief Peter Sparkes has said volunteers working for the charity are facing abuse which he described as unacceptable, amid what he said was the spread of deliberate misinformation about the organisation.
Sparkes said false information had been circulated about the RNLI, a charity that relies on volunteers. His comments place concern over the treatment of those volunteers at the centre of the issue.
The available material does not set out the specific nature of the abuse, where incidents have taken place, or who is alleged to have been responsible. It also does not provide details of the misinformation referred to by Sparkes.
The remarks nevertheless indicate that the charity’s leadership views the abuse of its volunteers as a serious matter. Sparkes’s use of the word “unacceptable” underlines the organisation’s concern about the impact on people giving their time to its work.
No further response, action plan or official next steps were included in the supplied material. The latest known position is that Sparkes has publicly raised the issue and linked it to misinformation being spread about the RNLI.
