I thank my hon. Friend for his intervention. It is a positive thing that we have an environment where people, rightly, feel able to come forward and blow the whistle. The legislation that was enacted was important and is generally working well. We are proposing small changes to it in this Bill, but it is absolutely important. For the reasons that I outlined, that legal protection is necessary and we should be proud of the fact that we have such legislation.
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The second proposal by the hon. Member for North Ayrshire and Arran, new clause 2, seeks to put in place a remedy for a whistleblower who has suffered some sort of detriment, even where that has not been directly caused by the employer. As it stands, the wording of the new clause suggests that an employer could be responsible for the actions of any person who has caused detriment to a whistleblower, including people who have no connection to the employer. Yesterday, we discussed the vicarious liability provisions in the Equality Act 2010 that are being repealed through this Bill, and the reasoning that causes us to consider those unnecessary applies to this provision, too. It would therefore be inconsistent to make these changes to the public interest disclosure regime. As the hon. Lady knows, we had a good discussion on this matter in the Westminster Hall debate.
It is important to note that a whistleblower does have protection and remedy in those circumstances. First, where the employer incites or encourages co-workers to engage in harassment it is likely that they will be liable, even if they do not carry out that activity themselves. Secondly, employers have a duty of care to their workers to provide a workplace that is one of trust and confidence, and that is safe. Thirdly, where the abuse is particularly grave or oppressive the employer can be found to be vicariously liable under the Protection from Harassment Act 1997.
Finally, the law already provides a level of protection for those who argue that their employer has acted to destroy the relationship of mutual trust and confidence.
In such cases, an employee could bring a claim for constructive dismissal. Taken as a whole, the Government believe that those protections strike the right balance in protecting whistleblowers without imposing unreasonable and unworkable demands on employers.
Let me now deal with the amendments to clause 7. The early conciliation regime that we are introducing will require prospective claimants to transmit details of their claim to ACAS in the prescribed manner. Where information is missing from an early conciliation form submitted by a prospective claimant, we think that there may be merit in allowing ACAS to obtain the relevant details via the telephone. Our amendments 6 and 7 therefore propose the replacement of the words “send” and “sending” with “provide” and “providing” to give the flexibility needed to implement the best process for all parties. They are minor amendments and have no other effect on the early conciliation process debated in Committee, of which Opposition Members were supportive.