Whistleblowing arises where you bring information about a wrongdoing to the attention of your employer or a relevant organization. This is commonly referred to as ‘blowing the whistle’ and it is more formally known as ‘making a disclosure in the public interest’ which is a protected disclosure. The relevant legislation appears in the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998. 

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Even where there are contractual duties of confidentiality to an employer, there can be no provision within a contract of employment that precludes any employee or worker from making a protected disclosure.  Any contractual term that seeks to stop a worker from making a protected disclosure will be held to be void – and therefore unenforceable.

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Protected disclosures can be made by the worker after their employment has ended and even if the employee is disclosing the same information multiple times to someone who is already aware of it.

 

What is a protected disclosure?

​To qualify for protection, you must have a “reasonable belief ” that a wrongdoing has occurred, or is likely to occur, and that it is in the public interest. It is not necessary for the wrongdoing to have actually occurred, but that you believe it to be true.

 

To qualify as a protected disclosure, it also needs to relate to statutory category of “failure”, namely;

-a criminal offence;
-a breach of legal obligation;
-a miscarriage of justice;
-a danger to health and safety of an individual;
-damage to the environment or related to a deliberate attempt to conceal any of these matters;
-that information relating to any of the above has been, or is likely to be deliberately concealed.

 

The definition of what amounts to disclosure is essentially “any information”, and this can arise from an amalgamation of several communications, even if one or more would not qualify. A disclosure of information can also take place where the information is provided to a person who is already aware of that information. You need to convey facts of events when providing information- allegations are not the same thing.

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Personal grievances (for example bullying, harassment, discrimination) are not covered by whistleblowing law, unless your particular case is in the public interest. This should instead be dealt with in the first instance by lodging a grievance.

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The Tribunal uses ‘Vento bands’ to decide how much injury to feelings you should be awarded.  There are three bands of compensation for injury to feelings awards.   Amounts in excess of £58,700 can be awarded in the 'most exceptional' cases.

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Vento bands (6 April 2024)

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• the lowest band – £1,200 - £11,700 - this will be for the least serious cases, such as where the discriminatory act is a one-off.

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• the middle band – £11,700 - £35,200 - serious cases, but ones where an award in the highest band would not be appropriate.

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• the highest band –  £35,200 - £58,700 - these are the most serious cases, such as where there has been a lengthy campaign of discriminatory harassment which has a profound effect on the victim.

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