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

To ask Her Majesty's Government when they plan to review the framework of protections offered to whistleblowers.

The Government recognises how valuable it is that whistleblowers are prepared to shine a light on wrongdoing, and believes that they should be able to do so without fear of recriminations.

The Government has continued to make reforms to the whistleblowing regime to enhance the role of prescribed persons. The most recent reform was a new legislative requirement for most prescribed persons to produce an annual report on whistleblowing disclosures made to them by workers and how they were taken forward. Relevant prescribed persons were required to publish the second of these reports by the end of September 2019. The duty increases confidence in the actions taken by prescribed persons through greater transparency about how disclosures are handled.

Alongside the new duty, the Government published guidance for prescribed persons to help them understand their role and provide advice on complying with legal requirements as well as practices beyond the whistleblowing legislation.

The Government has committed to reviewing the whistleblowing framework once the recent reforms have built the necessary evidence of their impact.