Ms Ciara Morgan:

I take the Deputy's point. As Mr. Menton said in his opening statement, we have good strong legislation and it is well recognised internationally, but it is far from perfect and there are issues that need to be addressed. When one considers the numbers of disclosures, and when considering the information we have in our own country and in other countries, due to the nature of protected disclosures it can be difficult to get data on reports being made and what is happening with reports because there are very understandable requirements for the high level of confidentiality around them.

With regard to the EU directive on whistleblowing and how we will transpose it in this Bill, the good thing is that we will have much better data and more stringent reporting requirements and it will allow us to benchmark ourselves against other EU member states. We will be required to report annually to the Commission on progress under the directive. This will shine more of a light and, given the way that the directive is being set up, it will do so in a safe way that will also protect confidentiality for people making reports.