Asked by: Rachel Blake (Labour (Co-op) - Cities of London and Westminster)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether he is taking steps to encourage whistleblowing in the business community.
Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
My Department is responsible for routinely updating the Prescribed Persons Order, a list of relevant bodies to which a worker can make a protected disclosure about a wrongdoing. Recent whistleblowing disclosures have been highly concentrated in health, public administration, and the financial and insurance sectors. We continue to regularly review the list and address gaps to support more workers to qualify for whistleblowing protections.
Asked by: Rachel Blake (Labour (Co-op) - Cities of London and Westminster)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps his Department is taking to improve employment regulation applicable to (a) Deliveroo, (b) Just Eat and (c) other online food delivery companies.
Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Online food delivery companies, like all companies, must comply with their legal obligations to ensure those they engage receive the rights and protections to which they are entitled.
However, we recognise the complexity of the UK’s current three-tiered employment status framework, and have committed to consult in detail on moving towards a simpler two-part framework that differentiates between workers and the genuinely self-employed. This consultation will include how to implement measures to strengthen protections for the self-employed including a right to a written contract and extension of health and safety and blacklisting protections to self-employed workers.