Are we seeing greater protection for whistleblowers?

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Health Education England recently introduced whistleblowing protection for junior doctors. This forms part of a growing trend towards increased protection for those who make disclosures, argues Sean Dempsey from Lewis Silkin. A whistleblowing claim can be expensive to defend, and even more expensive to lose. A report by the charity Public Concern at Work records a payout of £3.4 million made to a director of a medical marketing company for a whistleblowing claim. There has also been a general trend towards strengthening the protection of whistleblowers in court and tribunal decisions. Against this background, junior doctors have now been given enhanced protection in whistleblowing situations. Whistleblowing is made up of two elements: a worker disclosing a certain type of wrongdoing (such as a criminal offence, a health and safety violation, the causing of environmental damage, a miscarriage of justice, or breach of the law), and doing so in the public interest. These are known as “protected disclosures”.

Whistleblowing in the public interest

The requirement for protected disclosures to be in the public interest was introduced in 2013. Previously, disclosures only needed to report one of the specified types of wrongdoing, and workers could be making the disclosures entirely in their own interest. The public interest requirement was introduced primarily to stop workers from being protected by whistle