Asked by: Gareth Snell (Labour (Co-op) - Stoke-on-Trent Central)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the (a) Whistleblowing Framework and (b) protections provided to whistleblowers.
Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The whistleblowing framework provides routes for workers to make disclosures about wrongdoing or someone covering up wrongdoing. Workers who blow the whistle are entitled to protection from detriment or dismissal, and have a route to redress where this happens.
In the Plan to Make Work Pay, the Government committed to strengthen protections for whistleblowers, including by updating protection for women who report sexual harassment at work.
Through the Employment Rights Bill [introduced on 10 October], we will make it clear that disclosures about sexual harassment can qualify for whistleblowing protections.