The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) has announced a new consultation on the ease of information exchange between employment tribunals and regulatory bodies in whistleblowing cases.

Approximately 1,700 whistleblowing claims (i.e. claims involving the Public Interest Disclosure Act, or PIDA) were brought before employment tribunals last year. At present there is no mechanism by which tribunals can forward PIDA allegations to the relevant industry regulatory body - this new consultation is designed to gather views on this situation.

It is suggested that when an ET1 claim form contains a PIDA disclosure, the employment tribunal should have the power to send a copy of it directly to the appropriate regulator. This will only happen at the discretion of the claimant, as there will be a box on the form that will have to be ticked in order for a copy of the form to be passed on.

The consultation document includes a draft version of an ET1 form including the new PIDA section, as well as draft regulations which describe the process in detail.

The consultation period will end on 2nd October 2009, and any regulatory amendments that arise from the consultation are expected to be implemented on 6th April 2010.

Minister for Employer Relations Lord Young commented: “This is an important step forward in improving the flow of information between tribunals and industry regulators. This change in the rules will help provide an early warning system for patterns of unlawful, fraudulent or dangerous behaviour emerging within an industry.”

Technorati Tags: PIDA, Public Interest Disclosure Act, Whistleblowing