Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill

Debate between John McDonnell and Richard Shepherd

Wednesday 17th October 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Richard Shepherd (Aldridge-Brownhills) (Con)]

I apologise for not having heard the opening remarks by the hon. Member for North Ayrshire and Arran (Katy Clark). I can see, however, that she was doing a bonny job, and these are important issues that, in a sense, have been imported into the Bill because of what she describes.

I am a passionate believer in whistleblowing, and I stand in the shadow of some giants from the time just after the election of the previous Labour Government. Tony Wright came up with the idea that people who make disclosures in the public interest should be protected by law, and that surprising proposition met with approval across the House. Other people were involved. Sir Ian McCartney, then a distinguished Member of this House, fought within his Department to see this process advanced, and the Liberal Democrats supported it with interest and vigour. From my party, the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, then Leader of the Opposition, supported the legislation and served on its Committee. Nor should I forget Lord Borrie, who did sterling work in the House of Lords.

Tony Wright’s original idea that something could—and should—be done, set in train a motion that found supporters from across the House and among their lordships, and from the then new Labour Government. I was fortunate enough—or merely the vessel, depending on how one looks at it—to deliver the idea through a private Member’s Bill. I am, therefore, delighted to hear a newish Labour Member standing up for something that reaches across the parties and has an important principle behind it.

The confusion identified by Public Concern at Work seems to many to cut across what the Government are trying to do. Hon. Members are sympathetic to the Government’s attempt to bring clarity, and many of us are mindful of bullying in public places or the workplace. Nothing should harm the feeling that an individual should be able to come forward and argue that they are making a disclosure, because that is in the interest of society as a whole and of corporate government.

I am cheered by comments from some of my colleagues, who clearly want to make this legislation a working part of ensuring that fraud and criminal activities, as well as all the other matters that have been raised by Public Concern at Work and that are in the public interest, do not take place. After all, the legislation is entitled the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998. I urge the Government please to enter into negotiations with wider society, and particularly organisations such as Public Concern at Work. The Bill must go to the House of Lords, and I have no doubt that the legal differentiation between terms will be closely scrutinised. I advocate that the bonny Minister raises the flag and fights for a change to the formulation of words, as proposed in new clauses 1 and 2.

[John McDonnell]

We have extremely limited time to debate this group of proposals if we are to debate the green investment bank. I absolutely abhor the programme motion, and the Minister took up nearly a third of the time for debate. Report is the only stage at which someone not on the Committee can table and debate amendments, and I have only around five minutes to speak to mine.

We naively debate the detail of legislation and Bills without understanding their political context. The political context of the Bill is the statements made at the Conservative party conference. This is the first stage in a legislative process under this Government of giving employers the licence to sack at will. That is what this legislation is about.

When the Minister spoke, it was like having a delegate from the Institute of Directors in the Chamber. The measure is like the first stage of the IOD programme for reforming employment law.