Tynwald approves whistleblowing procedure changes

It comes following a committee into the practice which was led by chair, Onchan MHK, Julie Edge.

This week she asked Tynwald to receive the Whistleblowing Policy Implementation Report 2025-26 report and approve 17 recommendations.

Ms Edge spoke passionately about the work and her own experiences of being a whistleblower while a member of Tynwald. 

She said: "If the chair of a Select Committee of Tynwald, with parliamentary privilege, with a public platform, with more than 40 years of public service behind her, has to invoke the protections of whistleblowing to feel safe doing her job, what chance does a nurse at Nobles have? A teacher, a social worker, a junior officer with a mortgage to pay on our Island, where their employer is very often the only employer in their field?"

The committee's work was however criticised by some members including MLC Gary Clueit who was part of the committee and said he had 'deep disappointment with its functioning'.

He said accused Ms Edge of approaching the committee's work with a 'preconceived outcome' something the Onchan MHK strongly rejected. 

Mr Clueit said: "It is a failure of the committee leadership to separate emotional historical cases from current statutory facts. 

"To address this topic properly, a clear understanding of what constitutes a protected disclosure is paramount. 

"It became clear early on that there is a widespread lack of understanding of this complex topic."

He further said the committee had a chance to rectify this but that opportunity was lost despite the offer of assistance from the Attorney General's Chambers. 

Onchan MHK Rob Callister, chair of the Public Services Commission, was also highly critical of the report saying it had overstated systemic failure by relying heavily on historic, pre‑2025, cases rather than evidence under the new policy.

He added: "Based on the evidence before this court I'm unable to conclude that the recent whistleblowers are losing their jobs, their health, or their careers. 

"The report highlights historic concerns, potential risks, and the need for ongoing oversight. 

"But it does not, in my view, provide any evidence of these harms occurring today.”

Chief Minister Alfred Cannan was more sympathetic on the position taken by the report saying, that while much of its work reflected the previous rules on whistleblowing, it provided useful guidance for changes that can be made to the current system.

He added: "The Council of Ministers has accepted and agrees that work should be done but the Council of Ministers also considers that the whistleblowing policy, updated in October 2025 and supported by strengthened reporting and oversight and oversight arrangements introduced shortly afterwards, requires time to be fully implemented, supported by ongoing monitoring of its operation."

Mr Cannan subsequently moved amendments that broadly accepted the committee’s recommendations in name but watered down or deferred the ones that would shift real power toward whistleblowers on burden of proof, hard deadlines, legal warnings, independent oversight and limits on NDAs.

Glenfaba and Peel MHK Kate Lord-Brennan meanwhile said it was clear there were historic issues that Ms Edge and the committee had rightly raised but she also praised Mr Callister, saying for 'from what I have seen and what I have heard and what I've been told the PSC chair is doing a very good job at continuing the work and the changes that were brought in from the PSC around whistleblowing'.

After the amendments were approved Ms Edge said the changes will leave the whistleblowing system “internalised” and unsafe, keeping power with OHR and PSC instead of creating independent routes, she argued they don’t fix structural conflict and amount to government “shutting down” uncomfortable voices rather than protecting people who speak up in the public interest.

You can listen to some of the debate here: