Whistleblowing
Contents
Overview
The Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998 (or the Public Interest Disclosure Order 1998 in Northern Ireland), allows workers (including employees) to make disclosures about wrongdoing without fear of reprisals or adverse consequences.
It protects them from being victimised or dismissed or being subjected to detrimental treatment for making a disclosure about certain matters (often in breach of contractual terms concerning confidentiality) in certain circumstances.
These disclosures are known as whistleblowing.
Who is protected?
Most employees and workers are protected when whistleblowing.
An employee is someone working for you under a contract of employment.
A worker is someone who works under a contract to personally do, or perform, work or services for you only and not as your client or customer. Though this includes employees, it's a broader category that generally also includes casual workers, some agency workers, members of an LLP and homeworkers.
It doesn't currently apply to interns, job applicants (unless they apply for a role in the NHS) or self-employed people (unless they work for the NHS).
If you are unsure if they are protected, you should get legal advice.
Employees who make a valid protected disclosure and are then dismissed for doing so can make a claim for unfair dismissal. It will be regarded as an automatically unfair dismissal.
Workers who are not employees cannot claim unfair dismissal, but can claim that they've been subjected to a detriment if you terminated their contract because they made a protected disclosure. A detriment can take several forms, such as denying them a promotion or access to workplace facilities or training opportunities that they would have otherwise been offered.
In England, Wales and Scotland, individual members of your staff will be personally liable if they victimise the whistleblower for making a protected disclosure, unless you give them a statement confirming that their actions did not breach the Public Interest Disclosure Act. It must be reasonable for them to rely on this statement. You'll also be liable if you fail to prevent any acts of victimisation, unless you can show that you took all reasonable steps to prevent it from happening.