Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of whistleblowing protections for employees of publicly owned broadcasters under the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998.

Our public service broadcasters, publicly owned or otherwise, rightfully remain independent of Government, but their employees like most in Great Britain are protected under the whistleblowing framework in the Employment Rights Act 1996 (as amended by the Public Interest and Disclosure Act 1998). This protects employees from detriment and dismissal if they blow the whistle on wrongdoing and certain conditions in the legislation are met.

More broadly, the Government acknowledges concerns that the UK whistleblowing framework may not be operating as effectively as it should be and recently announced, through the Anti-Corruption Strategy 2025, that it will explore opportunities to reform that framework.