EU whistleblowing directive and Employment Act 2006

Summary

The requester asked for all documents regarding the EU Whistleblowing Directive and its relation to the Employment Act 2006, specifically citing a UK-EU trade agreement deadline. The Department for Enterprise responded by providing a summary of the directive's protections and an email detailing minor updates to a Tynwald Committee report regarding compliance timelines.

Key Facts

• The EU Whistleblowing Directive (2019/1937/EU) establishes standards to protect whistleblowers in areas like public procurement, financial services, and data protection.
• The directive prohibits reprisals and requires member states to provide free legal aid and psychological support to whistleblowers.
• Member states were given until December 2021 to comply with the new rules.
• A Tynwald Committee report (2020-PP-0199) included an annex on the directive with text revised in September 2020.
• The UK All Party Parliamentary Group on Whistleblowing published a report in July 2020 supporting the case for a whistleblowing regulatory body.

Data Disclosed

• 2019/1937/EU
• 17th December 2021
• 2021-12-06
• 2022-01-04
• 21 September 2020
• December 2019
• December 2021
• July 2020
• January 2020
• pages 37 and 38
• 2127150
• 2020-PP-0199

Original Request

Please release all information such as meeting agenda items/dates, minutes, filenotes, emails, letters, reports, etc related to the new EU Whistleblowing Directive (2019/1937/EU) to include extension of legal aid to whistleblowers given the UK deadline to progress by 17th December 2021 under the UK-EU trade and co-operation agreement and given the Isle of Man policy to comply with UK-EU legal obligations and given a Google site:gov.im search with 0 results.

Data Tables (1)

Full Response Text

Those disclosing information acquired in a work-related context, on illegal or harmful activities, will be better protected, under new EU rules. The new rules, lay down new, EU-wide standards to protect whistle-blowers revealing breaches of EU law in a wide range of areas including public procurement, financial services, money laundering, product and transport safety, nuclear safety, public health, consumer and data protection.

Safe reporting channels

To ensure potential whistle-blowers remain safe and that the information disclosed remains confidential, the new rules allow them to disclose information either internally to the legal entity concerned or directly to competent national authorities, as well as to relevant EU institutions, bodies, offices and agencies.

In cases where no appropriate action was taken in response to the whistle-blower’s initial report, or if they believe there is an imminent danger to the public interest or a risk of retaliation, the reporting person will still be protected if they choose to disclose information publicly.

Safeguards against retaliation

The law explicitly prohibits reprisals and introduces safeguards to prevent the whistle- blower from being suspended, demoted and intimidated or facing other forms of retaliation. Those assisting whistle-blowers, such as facilitators, colleagues, relatives are also protected.

Member states must ensure whistle-blowers have access to comprehensive and independent information and advice on available procedures and remedies free-of- charge, as well as legal aid during proceedings. During legal proceedings, those reporting may also receive financial and psychological support.

Next steps

The law now needs to be approved by EU ministers. Member states will then have two years to comply with the rules.”

Note that the section in the extract headed “Next steps” was slightly revised in September 2020 prior to publication of the full paper as an annex to the Tynwald Committee’s report, here: https://www.tynwald.org.im/business/pp/Reports/2020-PP-0199.pdf

1. the accompanying email to Tynwald outlining some minor changes to the section on the EU Whistleblowing Directive in the Department for Enterprise paper

“From: [redacted]@gov.im Sent: 21 September 2020 16:00 To: [redacted]@tynwald.org.im) Subject: RE: Whistleblowing Paper

Hi [redacted]

Further to your request for me to check whether anything has changes since [redacted] sent in the paper in 2019, I’ve just made a few minor updates to section 6 “UK and European Developments / Publications” on pages 37 and 38.

Under the section on EU Directive 2019/1937, under “Next steps” I’ve amended the text to: “The law came into force in December 2019. However Member States have until December 2021 to comply with the new rules.” In addition, under the section on the UK, in relation to the All Party Parliamentary Group on Whistleblowing I’ve added:

“The Group has also published the report Making Whistleblowing Work for Society in July 2020, which includes research on whistleblowing cases. The research, the Group suggests, demonstrates the inadequacy of the current system in protecting whistleblowers and supports the case for a whistleblowing regulatory body.

A Private Members’ Bill to establish an Office of the Whistleblower was introduced in the House of Lords in January 2020.”

I hope that’s helpful.

[redacted as not covered by request] Kind regards

[redacted]

LEGISLATION OFFICER St George’s Court • Upper Church Street • Douglas • Isle of Man • IM1 1EX”

Please quote the reference number 2127150 in any future communications.

Your right to request a review

If you are unhappy with this response to your freedom of information request, you may ask us to carry out an internal review of the response, by completing a complaint form and submitting it electronically or by delivery/post.

An electronic version of our complaint form can be found by going to our website at https://services.gov.im/freedom-of-information/Review . If you would like a paper version of our complaint form to be sent to you by post, please contact me and I will be happy to arrange for this. Your review request should explain why you are dissatisfied with this response, and should be made as soon as practicable. We will respond as soon as the review has been concluded.

If you are not satisfied with the result of the review, you then have the right to appeal to the Information Commissioner for a decision on; 1. Whether we have responded to your request for information in accordance with Part 2 of the Freedom of Information Act 2015; or 2. Whether we are justified in refusing to give you the information requested.

In response to an application for review, the Information Commissioner may, at any time, attempt to resolve a matter by negotiation, conciliation, mediation or another form of alternative dispute resolution and will have regard to any outcome of this in making any subsequent decision. More detailed information on your right to a review can be found on the Information Commissioner’s website at www.inforights.im. Should you have any queries concerning this letter, please do not hesitate to contact me. Further information about freedom of information requests can be found at www.gov.im/foi.

I will now close your request as of this date.

Yours sincerely