For years, the UK and US have approached whistleblowing from slightly different starting points. The UK’s regime has primarily focused on preventing those who speak up from being subject to any detriment for having done so. The US has gone a step further, using financial incentives to encourage whistleblowers to bring information directly to regulators. The US has been something of a trailblazer in this regard, with only a small number of other jurisdictions (e.g. Canada/South Korea) adopting financial incentive models. Most global systems remain protection-based, rather than incentive-based, though the “tone” of the UK legislation has historically been more that whistleblowers are a necessary nuisance to be tolerated rather than a force for good to be encouraged.
Over the course of the last decade or so, UK policymakers and regulators have periodically considered but largely resisted US-style bounty schemes. As far back as 2014, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) issued a note on “Financial Incentives for Whistleblowers“, examining the proposition but ultimately rejecting it.
The UK government’s latest consultation, however, suggests policymakers may be taking a fresh look at the enforcement benefits that incentives are said to deliver as part of a wider package of proposed reforms (or, viewed more cynically, may have finally succumbed to the partial, but alluring prospect of more intelligence, more enforcement actions and ultimately more money being recovered, all...
Health care entities may be able to pay less than half the steep fines ordinarily associated with False Claims Act (FCA) violations by voluntarily reporting issues under a new pilot program launche...