25 June: Changes to whistleblowing legislation come into force
Important amendments to whistleblowing legislation are due to come into force on 25 June 2013.
With effect from 25 June 2013, ss.17 to 20 of the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013 will amend the relevant provisions of the Employment Rights Act 1996 to provide that:
- a disclosure will not be protected unless it is, in the reasonable belief of the worker making the disclosure, "in the public interest";
- a disclosure no longer has to be made "in good faith" to be protected, but an employment tribunal may reduce a worker's compensation by up to 25% if it appears to the tribunal that a protected disclosure was not made in good faith;
- a worker has the right not to be subjected to a detriment by any act or deliberate omission by another worker employed by his or her employer on the ground that he or she has made a protected disclosure; and
- a worker has the right not to be subjected to a detriment by any act or deliberate omission by an agent of his or her employer acting with the employer's authority.
An employer will be vicariously liable for any such acts or omissions committed by another worker or an agent. An employment tribunal will also be able to hold the other worker or agent liable. The employer will have a defence in tribunal proceedings if it can show that it took "all reasonable steps" to prevent the other worker from committing the act or omission, or any act or omission of that description.
- Updated whistleblowing policy Use this model policy to set out how a worker can make a disclosure under the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998. The policy has been updated to take account of changes to the law from 25 June 2013.
- Form for an employee to make a protected disclosure (whistleblowing) Use this model form to give a worker a formal means to make a disclosure. The form takes account of changes to the law coming into force on 25 June 2013.
Also
What is a public interest disclosure? The XpertHR FAQs section explains what counts as a protected disclosure from 25 June 2013.
The XpertHR employment law manual sets out the current law on whistleblowing.
Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013 (1.05MB) The Act is available on the UK Legislation website.
