Following a wave of tragedies where whistleblowers were ignored and silenced, British politicians are speaking out about the urgency of passing whistleblower legislation to replace the U.K.’s current whistleblower law: the Public Interest Disclosure Act of 1988 (PIDA). On February 2, a new bill called the Protection for Whistleblowing Bill was read for a second time before Parliament.
The push for the new Whistleblowing Bill has been led by WhistleblowersUK (WBUK) and the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Whistleblowing.
“The Whistleblowing Bill will transform whistleblowing in the U.K., making it an offence to retaliate against a whistleblower, fail to act, or to cover up wrongdoing,” explained WBUK in its press release celebrating the advancement of the Whistleblowing Bill. The bill will introduce an Office of the Whistleblower “with statutory powers to issue and enforce fines and penalties against the organizations and individuals responsible.”
For years, whistleblower advocates have pointed to deficiencies with PIDA as a whistleblower law. The reforms of the Whistleblowing Bill are meant to address these major shortcomings, which advocates argue have been at the root of public tragedies like the Post-Office Scandal and the case of Lucy Letby, a National Health Service Nurse found guilty of murdering seven babies and injuring others.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak called the Post Office Scandal the “biggest miscarriage of justice in U.K. history.” After...
International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) will pay more than $17 million to settle allegations it violated federal anti-discrimination rules tied to government contracts, the U.S. Department of ...