Day: July 26, 2020

The grouping Whistleblowers UK has produced a report examining if Employment Tribunals in the UK are the right institution to handle whistleblowing cases, and aims to open the debate by examining the evidence.  A research team from the University of Greenwich analysed Employment Tribunal judgments in England and Wales, for cases that included a Public Interest Disclosure claim, between 2015 and 2018.  A total of 603 cases were included in the analysis.  Included in the study were only those cases that went to at least preliminary hearing. Cases that were withdrawn before preliminary hearing were discounted.  Its finding include that only 12% of whistleblowers whose cases go to preliminary hearing at Employment Tribunals in England and Wales are successful, whistleblowers are suffering more and longer than before, are receiving less legal support than before, and while whistleblowing cases commonly include a discrimination claim, those are the least successful whistleblowing cases. The report says that findings support the urgent establishment of the Office of the Whistleblower, as a centre of expertise, mandated to make interventions that increase access to justice.

https://a02f9c2f-03a1-4206-859b-06ff2b21dd81.filesusr.com/ugd/88d04c_56b3ca80a07e4f5e8ace79e0488a24ef.pdf

 

 

 

On 7 July, the Carnegie Center published this report which describes Dubai as an enabler of global corruption, crime, and illicit financial flows, but says that addressing the emirate’s role presents anti-corruption practitioners, law enforcement agencies, and policymakers with particularly complex challenges.  It says that both its leaders leaders and the international community continue to turn a blind eye to the problematic behaviours, administrative loopholes, and weak enforcement practices that make Dubai a globally attractive destination for dirty money. It says that corrupt and criminal actors from around the world operate through or from Dubai giving as examples Afghan warlords, Russian mobsters, Nigerian kleptocrats, European money launderers, Iranian sanctions-busters, and East African gold smugglers.  It says that Dubai’s property market is a magnet for tainted money, with Dubai also a place to launder artisan-mined gold, especially from conflict-prone regions. It says that, with approximately 30 free trade zones, it is a haven for trade-based money laundering, over- and under-invoicing of goods, multiple invoicing, and falsifying of other trade documentation. – with minimal regulatory oversight or customs enforcement.

https://carnegieendowment.org/files/PageVittori_DubaiCorruption_final.pdf

On 26 July, the Mirror reported that mint-flavoured cigarettes were outlawed in May in a bid to deter young people from taking up the habit. Test purchases reveal shopkeepers in the UK are selling eastern European brands like Fest, NZ, Minsk and Queen under the counter. Manufactured in Belarus, border officials in neighbouring Lithuania seized 9 million on their way to the UK in the first 6 months of this year.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/gangs-making-millions-smuggling-menthol-22416137