10 March 2025
Authored by Cicely Fraser, Policy Officer at Protect
WIN joins the UK Anti-Corruption Coalition, Transparency International UK, Spotlight on Corruption, Parrhesia and Professor Robert Barrington of the Centre for the Study of Corruption at the University of Sussex in supporting Protect’s call for a legal duty to investigate whistleblowing for all employers in the UK.
With the British Government full steam ahead with their Employment Rights Bill, we face a once-in-a-generation opportunity to improve the UK’s outdated whistleblowing laws and centre Britain in the anti-corruption fight. Amid the US’s slashing of corporate anti-corruption standards, it is pertinent for the UK to step up and protect ethical business practices and to encourage, not deter, whistleblowing.
Once hailed as the most far-reaching whistleblowing law in the world, 27 years later, the UK whistleblowing law is massively lagging behind. UK law has been surpassed by the far-reaching EU Directive on Whistleblowing. In 2019, the Directive became the new “gold standard”, imposing legal standards on employers to have whistleblowing arrangements.
Whistleblowers are generally driven by strong notions of what is right and wrong, despite the difficult situation that speaking up often lands them in. Anecdotally, Protect, the UK’s leading whistleblowing charity, knows that what whistleblowers really seek is to be listened to, and for their concerns to be addressed. However, in the UK, the landscape looks bleak for many whistleblowers, who are routinely ignored.
There currently exists no duty on employers to act on the information brought to them and Protect hears time and time again that doors are slammed in the faces of those who speak up. It is gravely concerning that, in 2024, 40% of Protect’s callers reported being ignored by their employers, their concerns disappearing into a black hole.
“It felt like doors kept being slammed in my face”, Anonymous Whistleblower
“It is so nice to hear that I am not going mad”, Anonymous Whistleblower
“It’s a relief to speak openly about my concerns and to finally not be shut down”, Anonymous Whistleblower
The cost of ignoring whistleblowers is stark. London’s Grenfell Tower disaster, the Infected Blood scandal, the Post Office scandal and Lucy Letby murders at the Countess of Chester Hospital are the latest in a series of disasters resulting in thousands of lives lost and countless torn apart. Each could have been avoided if whistleblowers were listened to earlier. On top of the human cost of ignoring whistleblowers, Protect’s Cost of Whistleblowing Failures report found ignoring whistleblowers cost the UK taxpayer £426,338,460 across just three recent failures: the collapse of Carillion, the Post Office and the Lucy Letby scandal. This could have funded the construction of 14 new schools, 21 years of running a prison 1,440 doctors and 2,580 nurses' salaries for 5 years.
Rather than relying on the goodwill of employers, which countless scandals have proven to be ineffective, the UK must keep up with the EU Directive and impose legal standards on employers. It is time the UK Government heeded demands for a legal duty to investigate whistleblowing to be placed on all employers and for major employers to establish internal whistleblowing procedures.
The duty will mean wrongdoings are rooted out early on, and ruinous consequences are avoided. It will bring UK law closer to their European neighbours at a critical moment in time when being a united front against unethical business is more important than ever.
Since 1993, Protect has supported 50,000 cases, and its advice line supports almost 3,000 cases each year. They also support organisations in instilling best practice speak-up arrangements. Protect is lobbying for legal reform of the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998 and has drafted new whistleblowing legislation.