Some of my best friends are whistleblowers - and some of them are either out of work because of their whistleblowing or utterly frustrated because what they revealed at work about the misdeeds of others within the organisation was covered up or completely ignored.
The law - mainly Part 4A of the Employment Rights Act 1996 - has aimed at protecting whistleblowers who disclose what has been outraging them to a person or body prescribed by the Public Interest Disclosure (Prescribed Persons) Order 2014. The scheme has operated badly with most whistleblowers having no confidence that their disclosures have been investigated properly or at all. Now, the Prescribed Persons (Reports on Disclosures of Information) Regulations 2017 SI 2017/507 which came into force on 1 April 2017 forces those prescribed person and bodies to report annually on whistleblowing activity within the organisation. The report is to include a summary of the action taken and will usually be published on the website of whoever is doing the reporting.
