New Report from Protect examines "The Cost of Whistleblowing Failures"

Protect, the UK's leading whistleblowing charity and Member of WIN, released its report "The Cost of Whistleblowing Failures: Assessing the cost of whistleblowing failures to the public purse" in February 2025 with the support of the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust.

The research examined the cost to the taxpayer from whistleblowing failures across three of the UK’s biggest scandals: the Post Office Horizon IT scandal, the Countess of Chester Hospital/Lucy Letby scandal, and the collapse of construction company Carillion. 

Their research from this report concluded, "that taxpayers are often picking up the pieces from the scandal and paying avoidable costs even when the organisation at the heart of the scandal is a private sector company. Each case study showed a gap in accountability from the point whistleblowing concerns are raised in each scandal and then the response from employers and regulators in reacting to the issues being raised."

Further recommended action is also given by Protect on how to prevent this in the future.

To read the full report and to learn more about how this research project was created and thought out, click here.