April Newsletter

Dear ,

In this month’s edition

Fraud, reporting and whistleblowing incentives
Employment Rights Bill leaps into the Lords
Stepping up to the London Legal Walk

This month the Home Office announced that the second phase of the independent review of UK fraud offences will include “evaluating incentives for criminal fraud networks informants and whistleblowers”. This adds to the growing debate on whistleblower rewards, following the report published by the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) last December and the Director of the Serious Fraud Office’s stated desire to introduce financial rewards to incentivise whistleblowers. You can read Protect’s position on rewards here.

The SFO has also published new guidance stating that firms that self-report suspected wrongdoing and co-operate with investigators will get a chance to avoid prosecution. Firms will instead be offered the chance to negotiate a Deferred Prosecution Agreement (DPA). The SFO considers that self-reporting suspected corporate criminal conduct is “a mark of a responsible organisation”. Encouraging internal whistleblowing may help firms identify wrongdoing soonest.

This month saw the government miss their self-imposed deadline to deliver on their much-awaited Hillsborough Law/Duty of Candour. A spokesperson said that after consulting with families, "more time is needed" to draft the best version of the legislation. We have key questions we believe need to be addressed – but are hopeful this will lead to a more open, more transparent, and more accountable public life.

The Court of Appeal determined in the case of Sullivan v Isle of Wight Council, that job applicants (outside of the NHS) do not have whistleblowing rights. We intervened to provide the Court with details of the blacklisting of whistleblowers that continues to create a chilling effect on speaking up. However, the Court decided that Parliament had made up its mind on this issue, so we’re looking to the House of Lords to address the current two-tier system for job applicants through amendments to the Employment Rights Bill (see below for more detail).

And finally, some very positive news in the case of Josie Stewart - the former Foreign Office civil servant who blew the whistle on the department’s “chaotic” handling of the evacuation from Afghanistan in 2021. After winning her Employment Tribunal back in February it was confirmed this month that the FCDO has decided not to appeal the outcome of the case. I know this comes as an enormous relief to Josie personally – who is now a member of Protect’s Advisory Council – and puts an end to a protracted legal battle which now has far reaching implications for the Civil Service.

Elizabeth Gardiner

Chief Executive

Protect in the news

With the government’s landmark Employment Rights Bill moving through Parliament – we wrote a piece for LBC News on the importance of making sure whistleblowing reports get investigated and were featured in the Sunday Mirror focusing on the cross-party support that is growing to make sure whistleblowing gets the attention it needs.
With the ruling at the Court of Appeal in the case of Sullivan v Isle of Wight Council – in which we intervened as a third party – we saw widespread coverage including Personnel Today, People Management and the Solicitors Journal. Despite our intervention the Court of Appeal determined that job applicants do not have the protection of whistleblowing law.

Policy update

On Tuesday 29th April the House of Lords will for the first time propose, debate and vote on changes to the Employment Rights Bill. Peers have tabled hundreds of amendments, and we’re supporting four that we believe will protect more whistleblowers and lead to the wrongdoing they raise being dealt with more effectively. We’re very pleased to see Lord Wills, a Labour peer and former Justice Minister has tabled three whistleblowing amendments that aim to alter the bill in the following ways:

Creating a legal duty on employers to investigate whistleblowing concerns.
Expand whistleblowing protection to cover parts of the workforce that are unprotected including sub-postmasters, job applicants, non-executive directors, and others.
Improve the test for whistleblowing dismissal and extend time limits for whistleblowers to apply for interim relief (otherwise known as reinstatement orders) from 7 to 14 days.

We’re also pleased to have some cross-party support with former Conservative Minister Baroness Nicky Morgan, Liberal Democrat peer Baroness Susan Kramer and Baroness Jenny Jones from the Green Party co-signing the “duty to investigate” amendment.

Elsewhere in the bill we are supportive of Baroness Kramer’s amendment to create an Office of the Whistleblower, which proposes a regulator for whistleblowing holding employers and regulators to account. This ambitious amendment would create a much-needed whistleblowing oversight mechanism.

Nolan Principles – 30 years old

On the 1st May 1995, thirty years ago, following the ‘cash for questions’ scandal in the House of Commons, John Major established the Committee on Standards in Public Life to make recommendations to improve standards in public life.  In the Committee’s first report Lord Nolan set out ‘The Seven Principles of Public Life’ which he described as ‘a restatement of the general principles of conduct which underpin public life’ and intended ‘for the benefit of all who serve the public in any way’.  

These 7 Principles - honesty, integrity, objectivity, accountability, selflessness, openness and leadership - have underpinned the Committee’s work for thirty years and contributed extensively to the development of the standards landscape in the United Kingdom. The Committee’s first report in 1995 strongly backed the approach taken by the newly formed Public Concern at Work (as Protect was previously known) pointing out that unless public servants were able to blow the whistle openly, they would either stay silent or leak information anonymously.

Here is an extract: 1stInquiryReport.pdf

Upcoming training!

Up next on the 8th May we are running our one-day in-person training providing a full overview of whistleblowing in the workplace. The training covers best approaches to managing whistleblowers and you'll also have the opportunity to audit your own whistleblowing policy against best practice and review your whistleblowing setup in a confidential and supportive space.
Following this we will be hosting our Whistleblowing Responsibilities as a Trustee, NED or Governor training on the 21st May. Did you know that NEDs, Trustees and Governors could risk regulatory action for failing to speak about incidents of wrongdoing or even personal liability? Our training will confirm and elevate your understanding of your role in an organisation and what whistleblowing responsibilities you hold.
Our fundamental training is the Whistleblowing Essentials session. Immersing you in practical exercises and case studies, you’ll gain the hands-on experience necessary to implement best practices from day one.. Sign up for the 12th June.

More info

London Legal Walk 2025

On Tuesday 17th June our team is walking 10km in the 2025 London Legal Walk. This is an important fundraising event for us and we're asking for donations.

Whistleblowers are vital to protecting the public interest but too often they face serious risks for speaking up. Your support helps:

Provide free legal advice to more than 3,000 whistleblowers a year.
Improve speak-up practices in UK workplaces.
Influence policy and legal reform to strengthen whistleblower protection.

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Employment Law and The Archers

Fans of the Archers may have been gripped by recent episodes that stretched the boundaries of employment law to the limit. With irregular interviewing practices and hints of ageism on the cards the official Archers podcast hosted by Emma Freud – just had to explore the issues. Taking to the mic is good friend of Protect and employment lawyer Beth Hale from CM Murray LLP who gives her take on the questionable hiring and redundancies at Bridge Farm.

Listen now

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