Whistleblowing: UK employment law

Essential points

• Whistleblowing essentially deals with protecting workers who expose wrongdoing within organisations. The protections are day-one rights as no qualifying period is required.
• A whistleblower is protected in law if they reasonably believe that the wrongdoing they disclose is in the public interest – this depends on the Chesterton test. This considers the number of people affected, the nature and impact of the wrongdoing and who the wrongdoer is.
• To be protected, the whistleblower must be an employee, a worker, a freelancer, a trainee, an agency worker, a person undergoing training as part of a training course, certain self-employed medical practitioners in the NHS, student nurses and midwives, applicants for certain NHS roles, a police officer  or a member of a Limited Liability Partnership. Certain individuals, including the genuinely self-employed, trustees and volunteers, are not covered.
• Reporting a criminal offence, a health and safety risk, a risk to the environment, a miscarriage of justice, a company breaking the law, or covering up wrongdoing all count as whistleblowing, but purely personal grievances do not.
• Whistleblowers making a disclosure that qualifies for protection can bring a tribunal claim if they are treated unfairly or lose their job for doing so. They can either bring an unlawful detriment or an unfair dismissal claim. 
• Whistleblowers can report wrongdoing to their employer or to a prescribed person or body such as the Equality and Human Rights Commission.