November Newsletter

Dear ,

In this month’s edition,

A precarious win for whistleblowers at the Court of Appeal
New whistleblowing guidance for in-house lawyers
Protect is hiring - come join us!

One of Protect’s critical functions is to alert the courts to the real-life consequences on many whistleblowers (and would-be whistleblowers) of a particular interpretation of the law.

This month the Court of Appeal issued a judgment on two cases – which were heard together - which threatened to make the ability of dismissed employees to claim meaningful compensation even more difficult than it currently is. Protect intervened as a third party to raise public policy arguments before the Court.

The Court has - for now - confirmed the status quo but has explicitly stated it was bound by an earlier Court of Appeal decision, Timis v Osipov, even though it disagreed with the reasoning. Read our response here. It’s a win for whistleblowers – but a win through gritted teeth.

With such a precarious result we await to see whether this case will be appealed to the Supreme Court.

The ethical tension faced by in-house solicitors - balancing their duties to the client with their responsibilities to the public interest - is a defining challenge for the profession. This tension becomes particularly acute in cases of whistleblowing, where the interests of the client and the broader public often diverge.

We are extremely proud of our contributions to the Law Society’s newly updated ethical practice framework for in-house solicitors. (see below for more details)

Elizabeth Gardiner & Sybille Raphael
Protect Joint-Chief Executives

MPs sitting and debating in the House of Commons, many suited men sitting on green benches

Photo by Getty Images for Unsplash

New in-house guidance for solicitors – Law Society and Protect collaboration

The ethical tension faced by in-house solicitors - balancing their duties to the client with their responsibilities to the public interest - is a defining challenge for the profession. This tension becomes particularly acute in cases of whistleblowing, where the interests of the client and the broader public often diverge.

We are extremely proud of the work we have done for the Law Society’s newly updated ethical practice framework for in-house solicitors, which includes a guide to whistleblowing and a model whistleblowing policy template. Responding to calls from the profession for more focused guidance, the new framework recognises whistleblowing as a critical area of ethical complexity and introduces enhanced support.

Unlike those working in private practice, in-house solicitors sit inside the very organisations whose wrongdoing they may need to report. They are salaried employees, working cheek by jowl with senior colleagues whose decisions they may be required to challenge.

The new guidance signposts solicitors to sources of advice – including the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s professional ethics helpline and our own confidential whistleblowing advice line – and encourages them to seek advice early, especially where privilege or regulatory duties are at stake.

Whistleblower reward scheme to combat tax evasion

Announced in yesterday’s Budget, the government is taking significant action to pursue those who attempt to bend or break the rules. This includes launching a strengthened reward scheme for informants who provide valuable information which allows HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) to tackle high-value avoidance or evasion, modelled on a successful US whistleblower rewards programme. For cases where tax over £1.5 million is recovered, HMRC will offer informants up to 30% of any additional tax collected above this amount recovered from tax fraud.

While we welcome moves to improve the UK’s ability to tackle economic crime and tax evasion – clearly in the public interest – we have some concerns about whether whistleblowers will actually benefit from the scheme.. Without clear and robust safeguards against retaliation, such as job loss or financial harm, it’s possible the scheme could have the reverse of its intention and discourage individuals from coming forward.

A reward system must be backed by a solid framework of whistleblower protection, transparency, and support to truly succeed in the fight against economic crime.

Read our statement on the announcement here

Amendments required to make the Hillsborough Law truly effective

This week MPs will get stuck into the meat and detail of the Public Office (Accountability) Bill – better known as the Hillsborough Law. 

Championed by the Hillsborough families and campaigners it aims to prevent future state cover-ups and will introduce a new duty on public authorities and public officials to act with candour, transparency and frankness; and bring in a new offence of misleading the public. More broadly it will make provisions to improve public inquiries and investigations.

When first debated the Bill at the beginning of the month we were pleased to see numerous MPs from across the political spectrum raise the issue of whistleblowing. They voiced calls for the bill to explicitly recognise the role of whistleblowers, to enhance whistleblowing protections on disclosures made under the new duty of candour, and to bring in a statutory duty on organisations to foster a speak-up culture.

We believe that for this bill to be truly effective, it needs to guarantee stronger protections for the whistleblowers that come forward.