Employment Act (Northern Ireland) 2016

Protected disclosures: reporting requirements

15.  After Article 67F of the Employment Rights (Northern Ireland) Order 1996 (disclosure to prescribed person) insert—

“67FA.    Prescribed persons: duty to report on disclosure of information

(1) The Department may make regulations requiring a person prescribed for the purposes of Article 67F to produce an annual report on disclosures of information made to the person by workers.

(2) The regulations must set out the matters that are to be covered in a report, but must not require a report to provide detail that would enable either of the following to be identified—

(a) a worker who has made a disclosure;

(b) an employer or other person in respect of whom a disclosure has been made.

(3) The regulations must make provision about the publication of a report, and such provision may include (but is not limited to) any of the following requirements—

(a) to send the report to the Department for laying before the Assembly or to the Secretary of State for laying before both Houses of Parliament;

(b) to include the report in another report or in information required to be published by the prescribed person;

(c) to publish the report on a website.

(4) The regulations may make provision about the time period within which a report must be produced and published.”.