Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing stronger protection for whistle-blowers, as proposed by Compassion in Care in their campaign for Edna’s Law; and what steps he is taking to support whistle-blowers.

The Government values the important contribution whistleblowers make when they shine a light on wrongdoing. The Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998 gives legal protection to those who speak up in the public interest.

The Government has made numerous improvements to the whistleblowing framework. This includes extending protections to student nurses and midwives, regularly updating the list of prescribed persons, and introducing a legislative requirement for most prescribed persons to produce an annual report on whistleblowing disclosures they receive.

The Government has committed to review the whistleblowing framework. We are considering the scope and timing of this review.