Draft Prescribed Persons (Reports on Disclosures of Information) (Amendment) Regulations 2022 Debate
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Bill Esterson
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Draft Prescribed Persons (Reports on Disclosures of Information) (Amendment) Regulations 2022
Bill Esterson Excerpts(1 year, 11 months ago)
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The Chair
Bill Esterson
That is a disgrace—questions should be asked in the House. Anyway, it is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair.
The draft regulations have complete support on both sides of the House, as the Minister will know from the brief debate in the Lords. He set out extremely well the importance of whistleblowers having the confidence to report on issues in the workplace. Today, we are agreeing—I am pre-empting the Committee’s decision—to give MSPs the same exemption from reporting requirements that we enjoy as Westminster MPs and that is already enjoyed by Scottish and Welsh Ministers. The Minister put it very well: this is a proportionate way of enabling MSPs, alongside Westminster MPs, to act as prescribed persons and recognising our distinctive role as elected representatives, which means that we might be approached by constituents who need to whistleblow. I am happy to support these minor amendments and I hope that they will help workers to whistleblow when they need to.