Whistleblowing

Debate between Baroness Clark of Kilwinning and Rehman Chishti

Tuesday 11th September 2012 Westminster Hall

[Katy Clark (North Ayrshire and Arran) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to see you in the Chair, Mr Leigh. I welcome the Minister to her position and I hope she finds her time in government interesting. I have no doubt that the experience will be challenging, and I hope she is a progressive influence on coalition policy in this area.

I am delighted to have secured this debate. I hope the Minister will leave wanting to make changes to the Government’s proposals on whistleblowing law contained in the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill, which is going through the House. I hope she will want to consider that area of law in detail. I appreciate the matter is complex, and I am pleased that she will consider it so early in her ministerial career.

I have worked with Public Concern at Work, which has a strong track record on this issue and was influential in the period leading up to the introduction of the legislation, and I thank it for supporting me in the lead-up to this debate and for providing briefings.

The provisions that currently protect whistleblowers are contained in the landmark Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998 introduced by the previous Labour Government. The Act was introduced after many decades of campaigning by many people, both inside this place and outside, from both sides of the political divide. At the time, the Act put the United Kingdom at the forefront of corporate governance legislation. Whistleblowing is often our only way to find out what is going on inside corporations and institutions.

In health and social care there is no doubt that the Act has saved lives. The lack of transparency in organisations in this country is a major problem. There is a culture of people not feeling that they can speak out about serious wrongdoings and problems.

[Rehman Chishti (Gillingham and Rainham) (Con)]

I congratulate the hon. Lady on securing this important debate. I recently represented the medical director of Medway Maritime hospital in a bullying case before the Care Quality Commission under its whistleblowing procedure. Does the hon. Lady agree that the Bill’s proposals will still allow NHS staff to whistleblow where they think it appropriate?

[Katy Clark]

I will address the position in the NHS later in my speech, but the hon. Gentleman is right that whistleblowing legislation has been important, particularly in the NHS. My concern, as I will illustrate, is that some cases will be more difficult to bring if the proposals are enacted, even though many people may still be able to rely on the legislation.

Many who campaigned for the legislation in the early days, and organisations such as the Trades Union Congress that are directly involved in litigating on behalf of whistleblowers, are concerned that the Government’s proposals will water down the protections afforded to whistleblowers and will make it more difficult for those who should be able to rely on the legislation’s protection.

As the hon. Gentleman may know, much of the case law that has developed since the original Act has made it more difficult for people to rely on the whistleblowing legislation. My contention is that the Government’s proposals will be a further step in the wrong direction. When the whistleblowing legislation was introduced, it was intended to be accessible, clear and predictable with as much certainty as possible for those accessing the justice system. The Government’s proposals, by placing on the individual the burden of deciding whether a disclosure is in the public interest, will undermine those principles.

I do not suggest that there is no need to consider the law on whistleblowing. There has been no post-legislative scrutiny of the 1998 Act, and after a decade many issues have been raised that need to be addressed. I contend that the Government’s proposals will make the position more difficult.

Over the years, several cases have shown that the current legislation does not protect those who suffer detriment or reprisal at the hands of co-workers. There is also confusion about disclosure of information and allegations. There is no protection for people who are wrongly identified as whistleblowers, and there is no protection at the pre-employment stage, which needs to be rectified to avoid issues such as blacklisting. Blacklisting, of course, is a big issue for many trade unionists in this country.

The Government have no proposals to address those problems. Particularly in the health sector, recent case law and media stories have highlighted the difficulties that general practitioners, students, nurses, doctors, volunteers, non-executive directors and prospective job applicants have in relying on the legislation. Therefore, the definition of “worker” needs to be widened to include those groups, as well as priests, foster carers and no doubt many others.