December Newsletter

Dear ,

This month:

• Encouraging steps for whistleblowing legal reform
• Should whistleblowing be a Rewarding experience?
• and a look-back over Protect's whistleblowing year

Earlier this month two MPs tabled two of our proposed amendments to the government’s landmark Employment Rights Bill. These were to extend whistleblowing protections to more people (self-employed, sub-postmasters, charity trustees and others) and to lower the bar for automatic unfair dismissal claims. Liberal Democrats Sarah Gibson and Steve Darling made the case that our modern economy has seen a blurring of boundaries between people in the workplace, yet the law has not caught up. The Business Minister, Justin Madders responded to the proposed amendments – and while making no promises – he did make it clear that he is meeting with us in January 2025. We hope to update further next month. 

Employers are under a new duty to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace, and the news stories about Gregg Wallace this month remind us why this is so needed. Its disappointing to learn that action wasn’t taken earlier when concerns were raised and it shouldn’t have taken someone like Kirsty Wark to have to speak up through the media for behaviour to be addressed. If you’re an employer who doesn’t yet use whistleblowing channels for complaints of harassment, Protect can help – talk to our team about how we can support you. 

And we ended the year with our Legal Director, Sybille Raphael, giving evidence to the Thirlwall Inquiry – examining the crimes of Lucy Letby. Sybille explained evidence from NHS callers to our Advice Line and put forward our recommendations to improve whistleblowing in the NHS. A sobering but important way to close 2024. 

Wishing all our friends and supporters season’s greetings and all the best for the New Year. 

Elizabeth Gardiner, Chief Executive.

Does paying whistleblowers work? 

When it comes to the issue of offering rewards to whistleblowers the debate swings back and forth as regularly as a pendulum. For most of those who call our Advice Line – where charities, the NHS and care services make up the bulk of our calls – there is no question of rewards, and their introduction would make little sense except in circumstances where substantial fines are levied against organisations and wrongdoers. Research published this month by the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) has set out that financially rewarding whistleblowers could, with appropriate safeguards, increase the effectiveness of economic crime investigations. The research also finds that rewards in isolation are not enough and that sanctions against those that victimise whistleblowers are needed to make the system more effective. It’s the news the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has been waiting for. Their new Director Nick Ephgrave QPM, has made no secret of his desire to introduce financial incentives for whistleblowers. At Protect we believe any rewards programme needs to be backed up with greater transparency on the part of regulators. Check out our most recent blog for our analysis. 

Protect’s Whistleblowing Wrapped 

With 2025 just around the corner, we’re taking stock and looking back over the past 12 months with some of our selected highlights of the year: 

• For World Whistleblowers’ Day in June we joined together with Focal Point Training, to explore the role of whistleblowing in addressing workplace sexual harassment. The online webinar covered an overview of the new Worker Protection Act and how improving workplace culture can prevent sexual harassment.   

• As December comes to a close our stats tell us we’ve already advised more than 3,200 new cases this year on our Advice Line – helping people understand their rights and how to safely blow the whistle. 

• New guidance was published this year providing important advice on the new corporate criminal offence of ‘failure to prevent fraud’. We were consulted on the guidance and quoted as a go-to organisation for support and advice. We’ll be running a webinar early next year to outline how the new law works and what organisations can do to take action to prevent fraud.  

• We receive consistently high scores for our training sessions – and this year our training become Continuing Professional Development (CPD) accredited. 

• 2024 was an election year and a new government brings new opportunities to improve whistleblowing law - specifically through the signature Employment Rights Bill that’s currently traversing through Parliament (see above for our latest success).  

• It’s not something we do very often – but this year we successfully intervened in two critical employment appeal tribunals (EATs) – shifting the dial on whistleblowing protections for charity trustees and safeguarding Injury to Feelings compensation. 

• We ran a dedicated training session for new MPs and their staff on their role in listening to whistleblowers. MPs come under the “Prescribed Person” category – meaning someone a whistleblower can report their concerns to, outside of their own organisation. 

• Fans of the BBC’s Casualty drama were treated to an explosive storyline this year all about whistleblowing. We had been working behind the scenes with the TV production for months making sure they were presenting a realistic scenario and taking inspiration from some of our real-life calls.  

• We added some trophies to the cabinet this year– bringing home the award for Best In-House Legal Team at the inaugural ESG Legal Awards and a Highly Commended recognition at the Lexis Nexis Legal Awards for our work on our Environmental Whistleblowing Toolkit. 

• Lastly, a final humble-brag in the form of a Tedx talk by our Legal Director Sybille Raphael. Invited to her home-town of Paris she delivered a barnstorming talk exploring Whistleblowing in the Digital Age. 

Upcoming Events

How will you make sure you’re whistleblowing-ready in 2025?

Alongside our essential membership programme, training and tailored support packages we’re planning a host of events and activities for early 2025 to help you stay informed and up to date with developments in whistleblowing law and speaking up best practice.

Events already in the pipeline include:

• Feb 2025 – Webinar - 'Whistleblowing and Fraud', including the Failure to Prevent Fraud Offence
• Feb 2025 – Breakfast Briefing - 'Top Ten Things Charities Get Wrong in Whistleblowing' in partnership with Bates Wells
• Mar 2025 – Breakfast Briefing - Challenger Banks, whistleblowing and risk management

All dates will be confirmed in the new year – do keep an eye on our socials and next month’s newsletter for more details…

We've taken a little look at the feedback we received from callers to our whistleblowing Advice Line over the past year, and as ever its been overwhelmingly positive. We pride ourselves on delivering the best quality advice in the most supportive manner, and it's always a joy to hear that the advice we have given has made a difference. As a charity we rely on your support to fund our activities and keep our Advice Line going.

Any donation you can give, big or small, is hugely appreciated.

Please note - our Advice Line will be closing for the Christmas break at 1pm on Christmas Eve and re-opening at 9.30am on Thursday 2^nd January 2025.