Senior national security MPs support whistleblowing amendment

Last week, the Telegraph reported senior cross-party MPs were backing plans to introduce an amendment to the upcoming National Security Bill to protect whistleblowers who raise concerns in the public interest.

As it stands, any whistleblower is required to convince a jury their disclosure was in the public interest which in turn leaves a wide scope for interpretation as to what constitutes public interest. This has been seen in past cases such as that of Clive Ponting, who revealed documents related to the sinking of the Belgrano, and would have likely been the case had Katharine Gun gone to trial for leaking GCHQ documents in 2003.

These new amendments would establish a clear defence for whistleblowers releasing information in a controlled manner for the benefit of public interest. David Davis MP explained to the Commons chamber that “if we do not do something people like Assange will continue to use this public interest defence” seeking to defend their reckless actions.

WhistleblowersUK commends the work of this pioneering group of MP’s and is pleased to see the results of our productive discussions most recently with Sir Robert Buckland, now Secretary of State for Wales who has adopted the proposals set out in the APPG Whistleblowing Bill. We will continue to engage with the Government, encouraging it to introduce these amendments as part of the National Security Bill. It is essential to everyone that these loopholes are closed making it safe to speak up about all abuses of power. 

You can read the full Telegraph article here, behind a paywall: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/09/17/senior-tories-back-law-protect-whistleblowers-who-leak-government/

You can read the amendment in this document from the House of Commons on page 21: https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/bills/cbill/58-03/0007/amend/nationalsec_rm_pbc_0923.pdf