On 27 March 2023 the Government announced the launch of a review of the current UK whistleblowing legal framework. In this briefing we take stock of what we know so far and what it means for employers.

The last of overhaul of the UK’s whistleblowing framework took place in 2013, when a number of major changes were introduced, including:

• the requirement that disclosures would only qualify for protection where the worker reasonably believed the disclosure to be in the “public interest”;
• the removal of the requirement that disclosures had to be made in “good faith” (but with provision for reduced compensation if the disclosure was not made in good faith);
• employees and agents became personally liable for detriments against whistleblowers and, in turn, employers and principals could be vicariously liable for this; and
• the inclusion of various NHS contractors in the definition of “worker” for whistleblowing purposes (and a power to bring further categories of people within that definition).

In the decade since these changes, there have been calls for further upgrades to the framework. In 2021, Protect, the whistleblowers’ charity, launched the “Let’s Fix Whistleblowing Law” campaign, in which it called for the expansion of the scope of whistleblowing protection to the self-employed, non-executive directors, trustees and governors, volunteers and job applicants. It also called for the introduction of a requirement for employers to have internal speak-up arrangements...

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