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Kyran Kanda

Office of the Whistleblower Bill debated in House of Lords

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On 25th June, Baroness Kramer’s Office of the Whistleblower (OWB) bill received its first full debate in the House of Lords. Protect supports the bill as it offers new and additional support for whistleblowers and you can read our previous comments here. The debate was well attended by members with cross party support in the ... Read more

Protect in Parliament – a six-month review

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A week is a long time in politics, and six months is even longer. At Protect, we have been busy lobbying MPs and government officials to improve legal protections for whistleblowers as part of our campaign, 'Let's Fix UK Whistleblowing Law'. This is a snapshot of the work we have done over the first half ... Read more

Dear Croatia…..

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As the Euros kick off and England gear up to take on Croatia this weekend, many across the globe will look forward – hopefully – to some world class football. Football, or rather footballers, over the past couple of years have become much more than sportsmen and women, and have used their celebrity status for ... Read more

Protect comment: ‘New employment rights regulator raises more questions than answers’

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Paul Scully, Minister for BEIS, (Business, Energy, Industrial Strategy) announced in Parliament (June 8) the creation of a single enforcement body to tackle exploitation of workers and abuse of labour rights. The proposed regulator will have responsibility for enforcing rights such as minimum wage, holiday and sick pay, and modern slavery.    Regulators play a ... Read more

Baroness Kramer Office of the Whistleblower Bill update includes reforming existing UK law  

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Protect is not alone in its calls to update the UK’s whistleblowing law, the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998. On May 20, Baroness Kramer introduced a bill to establish an Office of the Whistleblower. Baroness Kramer had introduced a similar bill in the previous parliamentary session but it did not pass through the various stages ... Read more

Queen’s Speech fails to mention employment bill or whistleblowing

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Protect is disappointed that today’s Queen’s Speech, which marks the start of 2021 Parliamentary session, failed to include the much anticipated employment bill or any mention of whistleblowing law reform – which the Government has pledged to review. The employment bill featured in the last Queen’s Speech but no proposals have been brought forward by … Read more

Protect welcomes Chancellor’s new Covid-19 taskforce 

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The Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced in his Budget, the creation of a new Covid-19 taskforce – the Taxpayer Protection Taskforce – to investigate and sanction fraudulent abuses of Covid-19 relief schemes. Whilst Protect welcomes this response to tackle fraud against taxpayers, we would also like to call on the government to follow whistleblowing best practice, particularly by ensuring whistleblowers who speak out about furlough fraud, do not get penalised.   At the ... Read more

Protect welcome report into global whistleblowing laws

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A report by the International Bar Association and the Government Accountability Project, examines the successes and shortcomings of whistleblower laws in 38 countries. The report, Are Whistleblowing Laws Working? A Global Study of Whistleblower Protection Litigation,which began in 2018, examines the strength of national laws on paper, compared with consensus international best practice. It found although almost a ... Read more

Is the UK slipping behind internationally in whistleblowing protection?

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‘We have delivered Brexit, and we will not use this new-found freedom to reduce worker’s rights’, was the response from Kwasi Kwarteng, Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, to speculation his Department was gearing for a review of employment law with an eye on reducing workers’ rights in the name of deregulation. ... Read more

Misidentified whistleblowers – falling through the cracks

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Whistleblowing serves a vital public function. It ensures that public interest wrongdoing in the workplace is called out, resolved and protects not only workers and employers but the public at large. Whistleblowers like Jonathan Taylor[1], Chris Day[2] and Clare Gilham[3] have helped expose issues of international corruption, poor patient care and failures in the justice ... Read more