Draft Prescribed Persons (Reports on Disclosures of Information) Regulations 2017

Jack Dromey Excerpts

Wednesday 22nd March 2017 General Committees

[Jack Dromey (Birmingham, Erdington) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mrs Moon. In an effort to ensure that we do not have to come back after the votes in the House, and in circumstances where we are not opposing the statutory instrument, I will be brief—unaccustomed as I am to that.

The starting principle is that of whistleblowing. It is absolutely right that those who work for an organisation and witness wrongdoing at first hand should be able so to do. What the Government have done is welcome in terms of the maintenance of the national register of those who have such obligations and laying down clearly what those—[Interruption.]

[The Chair]

Order. The sitting is now suspended. We shall resume at 3.17 pm, unless people can get back here quicker.

--- Later in debate ---

[Jack Dromey]

I can do this in 60 seconds, if that would help.

[Hon. Members]

Hear, hear!

[The Chair]

I resume the sitting.

[Jack Dromey]

The obligations are very welcome. The only reservation we have is not so much what is in the SI but what is not in it—further measures on blacklisting. I feel this particularly acutely, having been on three blacklists myself and exposed two of them—the companies were then driven out of business. Sadly, because of the need to be brief, I cannot tell those stories, but on another occasion I will.

Question put and agreed to.