US Steel and Aluminium Tariffs
Debate between Baroness Jones of Whitchurch and Baroness Kramer(1 month ago)
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Baroness Jones of Whitchurch (Lab)
My noble friend makes a very good point. As I said, we very much support the strengthening of our steel industry in this country. It is very important to us, and we are taking a number of measures to invest in and build that sector, including the specialist sectors he referred to.
Baroness Kramer (LD)
My Lords, will the Government give us an assurance that they will be extremely wary as they enter into, or continue with, trade talks with the United States? It has always sought very exploitative trade agreements to take advantage of both our National Health Service and our agriculture. The Conservatives negotiated a very weak trade treaty with Australia, which has done only damage. In these negotiations, will this Government be careful that they do not follow in the previous Conservative Government’s footsteps?
Baroness Jones of Whitchurch (Lab)
My Lords, I assure the noble Baroness that we will act only in the UK’s interest in any discussions we have with the US. The National Health Service is not on the agenda for those discussions.
Whistleblowers
Debate between Baroness Jones of Whitchurch and Baroness Kramer(5 months, 2 weeks ago)
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Baroness Kramer
To ask His Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the current capacity and efficacy of the law to provide confidentiality for whistleblowers and to protect them from retaliation.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Business and Trade and Department for Science, Information and Technology (Baroness Jones of Whitchurch) (Lab)
My Lords, whistleblowers play an important role in shining a light on wrongdoing in public life. They need confidence that they will be taken seriously and will have legal recourse if subjected to detriment or dismissal for making a protected disclosure. There are already day-one rights for workers, but we intend to strengthen whistleblowers’ protections.
Baroness Kramer (LD)
My Lords, whistleblowers who are defined as workers, and therefore protected by the existing law, still fail to win 96% of their cases in employment tribunals because of evidentiary requirements. They are financially ruined by cases that can drag on for years and, even if they win, their careers are destroyed because the tribunal does not acknowledge blacklisting. Will the Minister commit to an office of the whistleblower to ensure genuine protection for whistleblowers and proper investigation of tip-offs—to avoid a repeat of Horizon Post Office, Grenfell, financial mis-selling, Letby and Al Fayed, to name but a few?
Baroness Jones of Whitchurch (Lab)
The noble Baroness is absolutely right to raise those cases. We all take those issues very seriously, and we have debated them here in the Chamber on many occasions. There should not be a need for anybody to whistleblow; people should have their concerns taken seriously in the first place. This Government are absolutely determined, from the top, to make sure that people who have concerns at the workplace are able to raise them without the detriment to which the noble Baroness refers. With regard to an office for the whistleblower, there are a number of ideas around this. We are looking at the role and remit that such a body could have. There will be a need to look at the cost, role and function of a potential new body, but we are looking at all the ways we can ensure that whistleblowers are protected at the workplace, as they should be.