Updating author: Marc Meryon

On this page:
Summary
Future developments
Action point checklist
Key references
Questions and answers
Legal background
Meaning of "protected disclosure"
Disclosure to employer or other responsible person
Disclosure to the appropriate authorities
Disclosure in other cases
Disclosures about exceptionally serious failures
Employment tribunals and remedies

Summary

3.1332

• Workers who "blow the whistle" on their employer by making a protected disclosure, ie a disclosure concerning an alleged criminal offence or other wrongdoing, have the legal right not to be dismissed, selected for redundancy or subjected to any other detriment (demotion, forfeiture of opportunities for promotion or training, etc) for having done so. (See 3.1334 Legal background and 3.1335 Meaning of "protected disclosure")
• Any term in a contract that purports to override a worker's right to make such a disclosure is null and void. (See 3.1334 Legal background)
• A disclosure about an employer's alleged wrongdoing will be protected if it is made in good faith either directly to the employer or to another person within the employing organisation perceived to be responsible for the wrongdoing. (See 3.1336 Disclosure to employer or other responsible person)
• Workers may also make protected disclosures to bodies such as the Health and Safety Executive, the Commissioners of Customs and Excise, the Environment Agency and the Serious Fraud Office. (See 3.1337 Disclosure to the appropriate authorities; 3.1338 Disclosure in other cases; and 3.1339 Disclosures about exceptionally serious failures)
• Employers should develop simple and readily accessible internal procedures for dealing with such allegations. (See 3.1336 Disclosure to employer or other responsible person)
• A worker who is dismissed, selected for redundancy, or subjected to any other detriment for making a protected disclosure may complain to an employment tribunal. (See 3.1340 Employment tribunals and remedies)

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Future developments

3.1333 Public interest disclosure: In July 2009, the Government launched Consultation: employment tribunal claims and the Public Interest Disclosure Act (PDF format, 249K) (on the BIS website) seeking views on the preferred process for sending details of employment tribunal claims that include public interest disclosure allegations to the relevant regulator. The Government's response (PDF format, 77K) (on the BIS website) confirms that employment tribunals, with the express consent of the claimant, will be permitted to send copies of the employment tribunal claim form itself, or extracts of it, to the relevant regulator.