Stephen Holden

Law lecturer at De Montfort University, research focusing on whistleblowing, unauthorised disclosures, corporate governance, and tax crimes.

[Stephen Holden @support_wblower]

@WB_UK This was a primary focus on my thesis, and ultimately, the answer is the OSA and PIDA are fundamentally incompatible.

From a purely legal perspective, it's impossible to have a whistleblower who breaches the OSA.

This is a significant vulnerability.

[Stephen Holden @support_wblower]

@NC_Renic How else am I expected to keep myself entertained without them all looking pained as I say 'I saw a thing on the tick ticks...'

[Stephen Holden @support_wblower]

If my support for my students, as has happened with others in my profession, gets me put onto a dossier of 'far left extremists', then while utterly bizarre, so be it.

It won't stop me representing and doing my best for their welfare and progress.

I support them.

[Stephen Holden @support_wblower]

To be explicit - I endorse scholarship for black and other BAME students, and I support trans and other LGBTQ+ students.

We, as academics, should not be cowed from supporting our students. This isn't political. I support my students and their welfare.

They are important.

[Poppy Wood @poppyeh]

The dossier accused the academic of having “attacked whiteness” and “endorsed scholarships for black students”

It included a screenshot of her sharing a tweet with the hashtag “trans is beautiful” from 2020 and her retweeting a post saying “happy trans day of visibility!”

[Stephen Holden @support_wblower]

@kevinhollinrake @Daily_Express This will be massively overlooked, and the review of whistleblowing law does not have a public consultation, but subpostmasters with knowledge of institutional corruption could not have been a whistleblower reflective of self-employment. Huge gap in PIDA protections.

[Stephen Holden @support_wblower]

I have written an article addressing the incredibly concerning misapplication of the law in the FCA approach to whistleblowers.

@TheFCA have a crucial role in fostering cultures of transparency and protecting disclosing parties.

This is troubling.

https://t.co/DONvbXwSfe

[Stephen Holden @support_wblower]

Are we doing academic audiobooks of a thesis yet? Can I get @AmeliaTyler to do mine when it's finished?

[Stephen Holden @support_wblower]

"Every crime should be investigated by the police"

Okay Rishi, start here - https://t.co/a1XjpMlBO4

[Stephen Holden @support_wblower]

@TheFCA But it raises a significant further question - Do regulators want whistleblowers?

Do regulators see whistleblowers as a threat to their function, and something that represents a regulatory failure, as opposed contributing to a pluralist policing environment?

[Stephen Holden @support_wblower]

Very concerning from the @TheFCA and their repeated failure to protect a whistleblower.

Stating that a whistleblower waives protection if they are not anonymous is not simply a misunderstanding of the legislation, it is to make it up on the fly.

https://t.co/uHmM6c4661

[Stephen Holden @support_wblower]

@TheFCA Even a cursory or passing knowledge of PIDA makes it very clear the disclosure does not even have to be correct to be protected, simply a reasonable belief in the accuracy and truth.

This isn't a mistake, it is wilful negligence from a regulator and prescribed body.

[Stephen Holden @support_wblower]

@CllrBenBrown @MarcEva54772607 Of interest, this got me blocked. Others may disagree, but I don't think I was abusive, simply disagreed with a statement made and explained why.

In one tweet he talks about democratic mandate, and in the next, refuses democratic accountability and shuts down dissenting views.

[Stephen Holden @support_wblower]

@CllrBenBrown @MarcEva54772607 You won by 22 votes on a turn out of 29.82%.

170 more people voted for other candidates than voted for you.

You won 22 more votes than the nearest other candidate, but in no capacity where you elected with a majority.

[Stephen Holden @support_wblower]

Then we need proper and meaningful systems that recognise their actions, encourage future disclosures, fosters environments of transparency, and implements protections from retaliation.

Because the alternative is an environment of secrecy that encourages wrongdoing.

[Stephen Holden @support_wblower]

I'm so incredibly sick of seeing story after story like this. Of whistleblowers doing the right thing, in the public interest, uncovering wrongdoing and harm, and suffering as a consequence.

We need to ask ourselves as a society, do we want people like Dr Duffy, and if so...

[Tommy Greene @Tommy___Greene]

Award-winning medic @peter__duffy, who helped expose 500+ cases of harm at Morecambe Bay Trust, says he feels as if he has been 'hunted' out of the health service amid dispute over allegedly faked emails.

Story with @thetimes

https://t.co/LLqUYqnKgd

[Stephen Holden @support_wblower]

@Jess_Gagnon @damien_page This. All of this.

[Stephen Holden @support_wblower]

I hardly went to school for year 10 and 11, scraped through my GCSEs. I took two stabs at my A-levels.

But apparently, me being about to submit my phd thesis, and holding an LLM at distinction and an LLB is somehow inexplicable?

This is naked class warfare.

[Stephen Holden @support_wblower]

@sima_kotecha This is exactly why we need whistleblowing reform. We need systems of recognition and the protection that go far beyond the existing law, which is clearly failing. Happy to discuss

[Stephen Holden @support_wblower]

@ellievarley13 has been incredibly brave breaking ranks to pierce an environment of secrecy, drawing attention to the wrongs of the powerful, and deserves our recognition.

But, it should not be this difficult or dangerous to expect better of those at the heart of power.

[Stephen Holden @support_wblower]

This is exactly why we need root and branch reform of the law around whistleblowing, and to expand the definitions.

At the very heart of Parliament, our elected officials feel empowered to go around grabbing and harassing people who work in the HoC.

[Sima Kotecha @sima_kotecha]

EXC - In rare move, parliamentary aide goes on record to say she’s “very angry” with harassment & sexual misconduct around HoC. 25yr old Ellie Varley says she was asked to sit on MP’s lap & felt she had no choice but to do so “to get him off my case” 1/ https://t.co/wXTZKtAN5k

[Stephen Holden @support_wblower]

discriminatory, or any other manner of wrongdoing within Parliament, and if a worker alerts to this they can be bullied, attacked, harassed, belittled, fired, passed over for promotion etc without recourse.

And we wonder why more people don't speak out.