Welcome to our May newsletter.

Accountability, for many UK workplaces, is still very much a problem as we have seen with the Post Office Horizon scandal, the BBC Bashir revelations, and this week, the claims made by former PM Chief Adviser Dominic Cummings about government accountability during the Covid crisis.

It is reassuring to hear the BBC's Editorial Guidelines and Standards Committee is to review 'the robustness and independence of whistleblowing processes'. Protect has written to Sir Nick Serota, the BBC’s senior independent director, to offer our expertise in this process.

Protect was disappointed that the Queen’s Speech this month, which marks the start of 2021 Parliamentary session, failed to include the much-anticipated employment bill or any mention of whistleblowing law reform – which the Government has pledged to review. Whistleblowing should be very high on the Government’s agenda. The Government has previously said it “remains committed to reviewing the UK whistleblowing framework”. Protect’s view is that sufficient time has passed since the latest reforms to enable a review to take place. However, we are pleased to see Baroness Kramer has introduced a new Office for the Whistleblower Bill, and we look forward to working with her and others interested in fixing the UK's whistleblowing law.

Our recent research found just 48% of the public were aware there was a whistleblowing law. And as to knowing how to raise a concern in the workplace, much more needs to be done (see graph below). We hope our civil society campaign Let's Fix UK Whistleblowing Law goes some way to raising awareness as well as bringing about a change in the law. Our next planned Let's Fix UK Whistleblowing Law campaign webinar, Protect the Unprotected takes place on 29 June. More details to follow on our website.

We also have a busy month ahead with webinars as you will see below and on June 23 - which is aptly World Whistleblowers' Day - we relaunch our benchmark and discuss whistleblower mental wellbeing. Please do share what you have planned for World Whistleblowers' Day as we are always keen to hear and share best practice and positive workplace whistleblowing stories.

Liz Gardiner
Protect Chief Executive

Jonathan Taylor campaign continues as 300 day milestone passes

Protect has joined 40 legal experts, campaigners, academics and NGOs in signing an open letter calling for the Croatian Justice Minister, Mr. Ivan Malenica, to halt the extradition of British whistleblower Jonathan Taylor. We continue to brief MPs and journalists.

Jonathan exposed a series of multi-million pound bribes in the oil industry while working for one of Monaco’s major employers – oil firm SBM Offshore in 2013. He was arrested in July in Croatia whilst on holiday and has been detained there since, fighting Monaco’s attempt to extradite him, now it appears, for 'questioning'. Monaco has not pursued any of corruption concerns raised by Taylor- unlike other countries who have acted on the concerns with successful prosecutions.

YouGov research: Whistleblowing awareness lowest in retail, hospitality & leisure sectors

As part of our campaign, Let's Fix UK Whistleblowing Law, we wanted to test public awareness and attitudes to whistleblowing. We commissioned a YouGov poll of more than 2,000 members of the UK to find out if they were aware of the UK's whistleblowing law, and also if they knew how to raise a concern in the workplace.

Less than 50% were aware a whistleblowing law existed. The bar graph below shows less than 50% of retail, hospitality and leisure workers either did not know or were unsure how to speak up about wrongdoing, risk or malpractice in their workplace.

Write to MPs to make it happen!

Our campaign, Let's Fix UK Whistleblowing Law launched last month with a successful webinar attended by MP Margaret Hodge, MP Kevin Hollinrake, and whistleblower Dr Chris Day, with more than 120 attendees. You can watch the recording below if you missed it.

The Private Members’ Ballot this month is a fantastic and rare opportunity for backbench MPs to introduce meaningful law that will make a real difference for people. Protect is writing to the following 10 MPs asking them to make our whistleblowing bill (see here) become law. We are urging the public to help by writing to these MPs too. You can download our template letter here.

The selected MPs are:

Mark Jenkinson – mark.jenkinson.mp@parliament.uk
Barry Gardiner – gardinerb@parliament.uk
Carolyn Harris – carolyn.harris.mp@parliament.uk
Dr Liam Fox – ione.douglas@parliament.uk
Saajid Javid – sajid.javid.mp@parliament.uk
Kevin Brennan – brennank@parliament.uk
Jeff Smith – jeff.smith.mp@parliament.uk
Colum Eastwood – colum.eastwood.mp@parliament.uk
Peter Gibson – peter.gibson.mp@parliament.uk
Dr Ben Spencer – ben.spencer.mp@parliament.uk

WATCH: #LetsFixUKWhistleblowingLaw launch webinar

If the BBC wants to restore its reputation - it needs to get its whistleblowing culture right

Creating a more effective whistleblowing or Speak Up culture is a way for the BBC to both restore its reputation and ensure that such a scandal does not happen again. There needs to be recognition from the top of the organisation that whistleblowers should be encouraged to raise concerns, that they will be protected if they do, and that their concerns will be listened to and taken seriously. It appears from the Dyson Report that the BBC failed to take the concerns of whistleblowers seriously, and.....read more

Blog: Will the BBC learn to listen to whistleblowers?

Protect launches new Benchmark & encourages employers to think about staff wellbeing for World Whistleblower's Day June 23

Protect will host a webinar on World Whistleblowers Day, (23 June 1pm-2pm) to highlight the importance of caring for staff who whistleblow, as speaking up is not an easy thing to do.

We will be joined by Linklaters partner Nicola Rabson and sharing the experiences of our own Legal Advisers who deal with over 3,000 whistleblowing cases per year. Nationwide will also join us to talk about their own mental wellbeing for whistleblowers' initiatives.

We will also be showcasing our new Benchmark which covers governance, staff engagement and operations. There are new, additional pieces of data to help to guide you on your journey to gap identification and best practice.

The webinar, kindly supported by Linklaters will discuss the importance of a healthy speak up culture, and mark our Benchmark launch.

This event is aimed at those responsible for their internal speak up arrangements. To register please email business@protect-advice.org.uk

Whistleblowing on workplace sexual harassment and the employer duty of care

The #MeToo movement has undoubtedly given courage to many others to come forward and call out unwanted, unwelcome sexual harassment in the workplace. It has also shown the sheer scale of it.

At work, employers have a duty of care or responsibility to look after the wellbeing of their employees. Under the Equality Act 2010, employers are liable for acts of sexual harassment by one employee towards another unless they have taken all reasonable steps to prevent it.

Protect’s Legal Director, Sybille Raphael said, “In situations where the sexual harassment is of a group of people, or presents a risk to more than one individual, whistleblowing could be relevant – but whistleblowing disclosures must have a ‘public interest’ element to be legally protected.

Protect welcomes two new Trustees

Ravinder Passi is a UK qualified solicitor with over 21 years’ experience, who has first-hand experience of what it means to be a whistle-blower and fully understands the legal, professional, financial and personal implications of doing the right thing. Whilst working in Japan for over eight years, where he was Global General Counsel of a major car company, Rav was witness to a major corporate scandal that resulted in him having to blow the whistle and alert board members to wrongdoing.

We also welcome Rebecca Lloyd, an experienced leader in the voluntary sector, having worked in a variety of fundraising and grant-making roles over her career. Click here to read in full...

Protecting our Plates: Whistleblowing in the Food Industry June 15

The Business Support Team are pleased to be bringing together some senior whistleblowing leads within the food and drinks sector, for our webinar, Protecting our Plates: Whistleblowing in the Food Industry, during Food Safety Week (June 14-20).

Giles Chapman (Head of Analysis and Futures at the National Food Crime Unit within the Food Standards Agency) will discuss current key challenges within the sector followed by interactive break out room discussions.

Request your free place by visiting Protect's website

Convenience food producer Greencore, a Protect employer member, is looking forward to attending the event:

"It is important to us as a significant employer, customer, and supplier, to ensure that anyone can raise a concern in confidence without fear of retaliation".

Hello, goodbye and good luck!

We welcome Caitlin Comins who join us this month as a new Adviser. Caitlin has experience of supporting Rethink Mental Illness and the National Youth Advocacy and said, "Working as an advocate in hospitals and care homes evidenced to me the importance of a strong speak up culture, and the damage that can be done when workers do not feel able to freely and safely raise their concerns."

We also say thank you for all the hard work and farewell to two long serving members of staff. Hari Raithatha first joined Protect as a volunteer, and then a staff member who completed his solicitor training with us. We wish him the very best in his new legal post in Government. We also bid goodbye and good luck to Business Support Executive Kushi Gujral who leaves us after five years to join a senior role in the Third Sector.

Protect the Unprotected Webinar: Tuesday June 29

The next webinar in our campaign, #LetsFixUKWhistleblowingLaw will be 'Protect the Unprotected' on Tuesday June 29.

We are keen to engage with the following stakeholders: Self-employed, volunteers, non-executive directors, trustees, governors and job applicants, and organisations that represent these groups. More details to follow on our website, Twitter and LinkedIn.