Whistleblowing protection in the UK is provided by the Employment Rights Act 1996, as amended by the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998. It protects workers who make a qualifying disclosure about wrongdoing from detriment and dismissal. The protection is stronger than ordinary unfair dismissal protection in several important respects.
A protected disclosure is a disclosure of information that the worker reasonably believes tends to show one or more of the following: a criminal offence, a failure to comply with a legal obligation, a miscarriage of justice, a danger to health or safety, damage to the environment, or the deliberate concealment of information about any of the above. The disclosure must be made in the public interest, not purely for private reasons.
Disclosures can be made to the employer, to a legal adviser, to a prescribed regulator such as the Financial Conduct Authority or the Health and Safety Executive, or in certain circumstances to the police, to a Minister of the Crown, or more broadly to the public. The level of protection is highest for internal disclosures and disclosures to prescribed regulators.
Workers who make a protected disclosure are protected against suffering a detriment as a result. If you are dismissed and the principal reason for dismissal is that you made a protected disclosure, the dismissal is automatically unfair regardless of length of service. There is no two-year qualifying period for whistleblowing dismissal claims, and the compensation cap that applies to ordinary unfair dismissal does not apply.
A detriment includes any action or failure to act by the employer that puts you at a disadvantage because of your disclosure. Examples include exclusion from meetings, removal of responsibilities, poor performance reviews linked to the disclosure, harassment, relocation, and failure to promote. The detriment must be connected to the protected disclosure for the claim to succeed.
Whistleblowing protection covers workers who disclose information about wrongdoing in the public interest. Dismissal for making a protected disclosure is automatically unfair with no qualifying period and no compensation cap. Detriment short of dismissal is also actionable. An employment law barrister can assess whether your disclosure was protected and advise on the strength of your claim.
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