Protection for whistleblowers in the UK workplace was introduced by the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998. This legislation protects whistleblowers whose employer dismisses them or subjects them to detriment as a consequence of the employee having made a “protected disclosure”, which covers disclosure of information regarding matters such as breaches of legal obligations, criminal offences, damage to the environment, danger to individual health and safety or deliberate concealing of such matters.
Before 25 June 2013, it was a legal requirement that a “qualifying disclosure” relating to any such matters had to be made to anyone other than a legal adviser “in good faith” for it to be protected. This requirement was recently removed following a change in the law, eliminating a significant potential obstacle for whistleblowers to acquire legal protection.
We advise a number of employers who operate in heavily regulated sectors such as financial services and transportation/logistics where the importance of ensuring legal and regulatory compliance is paramount, and the potential for whistleblowing issues to arise in the event of non-compliance is more acute. We frequently support employers on the drafting and implementation of effective whistleblowing policies which provide clear procedures and policies regarding the reporting of concerns, lines of communication, support for employees raising concerns and training for managers. We also advise on dealing with specific whistleblowing situations when they do arise. We have also been instructed to draft “independent” reports for employers in such situations with a brief to provide an objective analysis of the merits of the situation rather than advising the employer from a purely strategic point of view.
We also advise employees who have potential whistleblowing concerns or who may have been dismissed or subjected to detrimental treatment as a consequence of having made protected disclosures. Such issues can often be highly significant in the context of disciplinary, performance management or termination situations, particularly when negotiating severance packages, due to the potential high value of whistleblowing-related employment tribunal claims.