Charles Pigott tracks the government’s moves to close whistleblowing “loopholes”
The Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill will make significant changes to the protection for workers who blow the whistle. Originally planned for this month, these are now likely to be implemented in the summer, once the Bill receives royal assent.
Addressing Parkins v Sodhexo
Back in 2011, when announcing the coalition’s plans on the employment law front, Vince Cable said: “Finally, we want to close a loophole in the Public Interest Disclosure Act relating to whistleblowing. It has become apparent through case law that employees are able to blow the whistle about breaches to their own personal work contract. This is not what the legislation is designed to achieve and we are going to stop this in future.”
In order to qualify for protection a disclosure must fall within one of six categories set out in s 43B(1) of the Employment Rights Act 1996 (ERA 1996). Cable was referring to the second category, which applies when the information disclosed tends to show “that a person has failed, is failing, or is likely to fail
