My noble friend Lord Whitty has tabled a very valuable amendment here. It is most important that any employee who public-spiritedly, and in the public interest, discloses information that he has from his employment that may indicate some illegality on the part of his employer or senior employees must be protected. The Public Interest Disclosure Act is now embodied in the Employment Rights Act, which we discussed at an earlier stage, and it is most important that nothing be done elsewhere in the Bill that would damage that protection.
In some countries—in the United States, for example—employees and others get what is called a leniency benefit. They may have had some guilt themselves in knowing about an illegality that their firm was committing, but they may get leniency by informing the powers that be of what that illegality is. This provision does not go as far as that; I bring that point up only to make it clear that in some countries the protection given to the whistleblower is even better than in ours. Our protection is good and is embodied in the Bill, and the amendment that my noble friend wants to introduce would ensure that that protection existed.
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