Both Labour and the Conservatives have pledged to do more to encourage a more proactive approach to whistleblowing, post the Election. 

On the one hand, we have the provisions of the newly-enacted Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act which, if pursued by the new Government, will introduce tighter controls in the Health Service and oblige regulators to report annually upon whistleblowing complaints received. More broadly, there are a number of proposals for a new, “over-seeing” role in this context, whether in the form of a “whistleblowing champion” or National Whistleblowing Review Officer.

Anthony Rees, partner at law firm Eversheds comments: “Despite a raft of legal changes in this area in recent years, it would appear they have not achieved the desired effect or have not done so sufficiently quickly. The next wave aims to rally external forces into more proactivity, with even a hint at “naming and shaming”, a tactic that has proved popular with Government. Although governments have shied away from insisting that all employers have a bespoke policy, increasingly employers are finding themselves under pressure to do so. In the context of a wider review, Eversheds recently sought the views of twenty global employers seeking their approach to whistleblowing.

All have operations in the UK and all professed to have a whistleblowing policy. However, whilst adoption of a whistleblowing policy by employers is common place, interestingly only 1/3 of the employers contacted confirmed that they provided employee training on the policy or issued regular reminders to staff of the importance of speaking out. That is something which is surely set to change in the short term, regardless of the Election outcome. The effect of the future proposals looks set to not only require employers to introduce a policy but also to demonstrate its application and relevance in the workplace if employers are to be in a position to respond to a central over-seeing “champion” or to resist allegations that they have failed to protect staff from whistleblowing harassment.”