Whistleblowers are being punished instead of heard – it’s time for the law to change

15 April 2025, 08:48

When someone blows the whistle at work they rightly expect action will be taken and their concerns will be followed up and investigated.

It takes courage to call out something that doesn’t look right – and whistleblowers provide a gift of information to their employer so they can stop what’s happening, whether it’s financial fraud or sexual harassment.

But currently there is a gap in the law that means employers don’t have to do anything at all. Too often, rather than the wrongdoing, it’s the whistleblower who gets investigated, a classic case of shooting the messenger.

But there is an opportunity to change this with the government’s landmark Employment Rights Bill moving through Parliament – and cross-party support is growing to make sure whistleblowing gets the attention it needs.

At Protect we talk to whistleblowers everyday – providing free and confidential legal advice. Last year 2 in 5 of our callers (40%) said their whistleblowing concern had been ignored by their employer.

On top of that more than two thirds (68%) said they faced victimisation or felt forced to resign after speaking up to stop harm.

From the Post Office Horizon IT scandal to the Grenfell fire tragedy scandals have a factor in common: whistleblowers tried to speak up but were ignored or supressed.

It isn’t just employers who lose out when whistleblowers aren’t heard – there's also a huge cost to the taxpayer picking up the pieces through public inquiries or compensation for those harmed.

We believe the law needs to change to help prevent the scandals of the future and give whistleblowers the confidence to report wrongdoing and see it investigated.

Introducing a duty on employers to take reasonable steps to investigate whistleblowing reports would add assurances, safeguards and a basic level of transparency.

It would mean all our employers raised their standards and behaved as the best do.

While the government acknowledges it’s time to look again at whistleblowing they’re not yet taking action.

The Employment Rights Bill, provides the best opportunity in recent years to improve whistleblowing in the workplace. Labour's Lord Wills, a former justice minister, tabled an amendment to the Bill with backing from the former Tory education secretary Baroness Morgan, Lib Dem Baroness Kramer, and the Green Party's Baroness Jones.

The same amendment previously received backing when the Bill was passing through the House of Commons led by Labour MP Alex Sobel

We know that whistleblowing is good for business – whistleblowers are the best and cheapest form of risk assessment.

Whistleblowers, employers and the wider public will benefit if wrongdoing and risks are stopped early.

Today too many unscrupulous employers penalise the whistleblower rather than addressing the problems at the heart of their organisations and this has to change.

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Liz Gardiner is the Chief Executive of Protect

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