Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee

Meeting date: Tuesday, May 14, 2019

Official Report 449KB pdf

Drafts Laid for Consultation

Public Services Reform (The Scottish Public Services Ombudsman) (Healthcare Whistleblowing) Order 2019 (SG/2019/66) and Proposed Explanatory Document (SG/2019/67)

Agenda item 4 is consideration of an instrument and a document that have been laid for consultation.

The proposed draft order’s general purposes are to create a new route for whistleblowers in the healthcare sector to bring complaints to the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman and to extend the list of bodies to which the ombudsman can disclose information that is obtained in the course of an investigation.

After the proposed draft order has been consulted on, a finalised order will be laid, which the committee will consider. There is an error in the proposed draft order that relates to the misspelling of “whistleblower”. The full explanation is set out in our published papers. The Government has undertaken to correct that error in the draft order when the finalised order is laid under section 25(2)(b) of the Public Services Reform (Scotland) Act 2010 following the current consultation stage. The Government has also undertaken to clarify some aspects in the explanatory document that is to be laid with the draft order, as is set out in its written response to the committee.

Does the committee wish to draw the proposed draft order to the attention of the Parliament on the general reporting ground, as there is an error in article 3(2) that relates to the insertion of section 6A(4) in the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman Act 2002?

Members indicated agreement.

Does the committee wish to note that the Government has undertaken to correct that error when the order is laid after the consultation stage?

Members indicated agreement.