Member

Benefit fraud is just as attractive to criminals as any other kind of fraud. Without insider knowledge, which comes from whistleblowing, the SFO has little hope of identifying most of the organised bad actors, and none of the new powers in the Bill seriously addresses that. The Minister also spoke of the PSFA possibly being listed by the Department for Business and Trade as a prescribed body where individuals can raise concerns around public sector fraud with confidence. The problem is that the Public Interest Disclosure Act, which provides for the prescribed person scheme, protects only whistleblowers who are workers. It sits in employment law. This is a fundamental problem with PIDA and whistleblowing way beyond this Bill, but it demonstrates that for the Minister to achieve what she apparently wants, which is a safe channel, she is going to have to come up with some very different answers.