London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Oct 30, 2025

Why the government's whistleblowing review is long overdue

Why the government's whistleblowing review is long overdue

Sky's Ian King says the UK should consider following in the footsteps of US whistleblowing culture - both in the City and elsewhere - which includes better rewards for those who expose wrongdoing.

The UK was one of the first countries in the world to develop laws supporting workers who blow the whistle on wrongdoing in the workplace - a so-called "whistle-blowers framework".

The laws date back a quarter of a century to the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998, an important piece of legislation that came into effect the following July, which sought to protect individuals who highlight malpractices in the public interest.

Examples include damage to the environment, risks to health and safety, financial offences or lawbreaking. The laws have been tweaked since on various occasions.

In 2014, for example, the government set out a list of more than 60 such organisations and individuals designated as "prescribed persons", including public bodies such as the Bank of England, the Financial Conduct Authority, Ofcom, the Children's Commissioner for England, the Food Standards Agency and the Care Quality Commission.

Then, in 2017, the government imposed a new requirement on these prescribed persons to report on the whistleblowing disclosures received. 

This has provided a lot more information on the kind of tip-offs that prescribed persons are receiving from whistle-blowers.

For instance, the Financial Conduct Authority reported in January this year that it had received 291 new whistleblowing reports between July and September last year, including allegations of fraud, mis-selling, poor systems and controls and failures of fitness and propriety.

Interestingly, the majority of people providing the FCA with information gave their names, rather than opting to remain anonymous - although, in order to protect the confidentiality of those whistle-blowers, it has to keep details of the allegations private.

Today, though, ministers launched a review of the whistleblowing framework aimed at assessing the effectiveness of the current regime.

Kevin Hollinrake, the business minister, said: "Whistleblowing is a vital tool in tackling economic crime and unsafe working conditions, and the UK was one of the first countries in the world to develop a whistleblowing framework.

"This review has been a priority for me since joining government, and it will take stock of whether the whistleblowing framework is operating effectively and protects those who call out wrongdoing in the workplace."

What appears to have informed the decision to launch a review - which was promised in the Commons last autumn - is an upsurge in the number of tip-offs received by the Care Quality Commission and Health and Safety Executive during the COVID pandemic.

An upsurge in the number of tip-offs during the COVID pandemic appears to be behind the review's launch



UK at risk of falling behind

Another likely trigger for the government, although this was not stated today, is that the EU has passed a Whistleblower Directive, which has since been passed into national laws for member states.

This directive toughened up whistleblowing rules and sought to introduce more consistency in the treatment of whistle-blowers across the bloc.

The UK, having left the EU, appears to be in danger of having a less rigorous approach.

Among the issues the review will seek to address is how the whistleblowing framework has facilitated disclosures, how it has protected workers, how readily information is made available to workers and employers and what wider benefits the existing framework has provided.

There is no doubt such a review is overdue.

It is now more than three years since the All Party Parliamentary Group for Whistleblowing described current whistleblowing legislation as "complicated, overly legalistic, cumbersome, obsolete and fragmented".

There has also been plenty of evidence that the existing framework is not working.

Protect, the whistleblowing charity that has provided support to more than 40,000 whistle-blowers, published a report in 2020 called 'Silence in the City 2' (the first such report appeared in 2012) which specifically looked at whistle-blowers working in financial services.

It revealed seven in 10 of those raising concerns were victimised for doing so while a third of whistle-blowers reported that their concerns were ignored.

It is not only in the City, though, that the existing framework appears not to be functioning effectively.

There have been a litany of public scandals recently suggesting whistle-blowers are being dissuaded from coming forward or being mistreated when they do.

Last week's report by Baroness Casey on the recent scandals to have engulfed the Metropolitan Police highlighted an environment not conducive to whistle-blowers.

And the chaotic mismanagement of the evacuation of Kabul in the summer of 2021, when hundreds of Afghans who had worked for the British Army were left stranded, also raised concerns within echelons of the civil service of how easily whistle-blowers can raise their concerns outside government.

Protect has also found much inconsistency in how prescribed persons report on the whistleblowing concerns that are raised with them, suggesting too few regulators provide sufficient information on the concerns raised with them and how they respond, adding: "The reporting duty on regulators is implemented in a patchy and inconsistent manner."

This is something that the government said today would be directly addressed by the review.

Better rewards are worth a look


One area definitely deserving of attention is the issue of whether or not whistle-blowers should be financially rewarded for their actions.

One reason the US is seen as having such a robust whistleblowing culture is because people are rewarded for highlighting wrongdoing.

Those who inform the Internal Revenue Service (the US equivalent of HM Revenue & Customs) of those who are not paying the taxes they owe can receive up to 30% of the taxes owed and penalties paid.

Similarly, those blowing the whistle on money laundering activities can receive up to 30% of any sanctions imposed, when the punishment is a fine of more than $1m.

The same applies to those highlighting wrongdoing to the Securities & Exchange Commission, the main US financial regulator, where it levies a fine of more than $1m as a result.

In the UK, by contrast, only HMRC and the Competition & Markets Authority currently pay rewards to whistle-blowers and not on as generous a scale as their US counterparts.

It will be interesting to see whether this review changes that. The experience of the pandemic - given the poor recovery rate for public funds mis-spent on PPE - suggests it is worth another look.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
UK and Vietnam Sign Landmark Migration Deal to Fast-Track Returns of Irregular Arrivals
UK Drug-Pricing Overhaul Essential for Life-Sciences Ambition, Says GSK Chief
Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie Temporarily Leave the UK Amid Their Parents’ Royal Fallout
UK Weighs Early End to Oil and Gas Windfall Tax as Reeves Seeks Investment Commitments
UK Retail Inflation Slows as Shop Prices Fall for First Time Since Spring
Next Raises Full-Year Profit Guidance After Strong Third-Quarter Performance
Reform UK’s Lee Anderson Admits to 'Gaming' Benefits System While Advocating Crackdown
United States and South Korea Conclude Major Trade Accord Worth $350 Billion
Hurricane Melissa Strikes Cuba After Devastating Jamaica With Record Winds
Vice President Vance to Headline Turning Point USA Campus Event at Ole Miss
U.S. Targets Maritime Narco-Routes While Border Pressure to Mexico Remains Limited
Bill Gates at 70: “I Have a Real Fear of Artificial Intelligence – and Also Regret”
Elon Musk Unveils Grokipedia: An AI-Driven Alternative to Wikipedia
Saudi Arabia Unveils Vision for First-Ever "Sky Stadium" Suspended Over Desert Floor
Amazon Announces 14 000 Corporate Job Cuts as AI Investment Accelerates
UK Shop Prices Fall for First Time Since March, Food Leads the Decline
London Stock Exchange Group ADR (LNSTY) Earns Zacks Rank #1 Upgrade on Rising Earnings Outlook
Soap legend Tony Adams, long-time star of Crossroads, dies at 84
Rachel Reeves Signals Tax Increases Ahead of November Budget Amid £20-50 Billion Fiscal Gap
NatWest Past Gains of 314% Spotlight Opportunity — But Some Key Risks Remain
UK Launches ‘Golden Age’ of Nuclear with £38 Billion Sizewell C Approval
UK Announces £1.08 Billion Budget for Offshore Wind Auction to Boost 2030 Capacity
UK Seeks Steel Alliance with EU and US to Counter China’s Over-Capacity
UK Struggles to Balance China as Both Strategic Threat and Valued Trading Partner
Argentina’s Markets Surge as Milei’s Party Secures Major Win
British Journalist Sami Hamdi Detained by U.S. Authorities After Visa Revocation Amid Israel-Gaza Commentary
King Charles Unveils UK’s First LGBT+ Armed Forces Memorial at National Memorial Arboretum
At ninety-two and re-elected: Paul Biya secures eighth term in Cameroon amid unrest
Racist Incidents Against UK Nurses Surge by 55%
UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves Cites Shared Concerns With Trump Administration as Foundation for Early US-UK Trade Deal
Essentra plc: A Closer Look at a UK ‘Penny Stock’ Opportunity Amid Market Weakness
U.S. and China Near Deal to Avert Rare-Earth Export Controls Ahead of Trump-Xi Summit
Justin time: Justin Herbert Shields Madison Beer with Impressive Reflex at Lakers Game
Russia’s President Putin Declares Burevestnik Nuclear Cruise Missile Ready for Deployment
Giuffre’s Memoir Alleges Maxwell Claimed Sexual Act with Clooney
House Republicans Move to Strip NYC Mayoral Front-Runner Zohran Mamdani of U.S. Citizenship
Record-High Spoiled Ballots Signal Voter Discontent in Ireland’s 2025 Presidential Election
Philippines’ Taal Volcano Erupts Overnight with 2.4 km Ash Plume
Albania’s Virtual AI 'Minister' Diella Set to 'Birth' Eighty-Three Digital Assistants for MPs
Tesla Unveils Vision for Optimus V3 as ‘Biggest Product of All Time’, Including Surgical Capabilities
Francis Ford Coppola Auctions Luxury Watches After Self-Financed Film Flop
Convicted Sex Offender Mistakenly Freed by UK Prison Service Arrested in London
United States and China Begin Constructive Trade Negotiations Ahead of Trump–Xi Summit
U.S. Treasury Sanctions Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro over Drug-Trafficking Allegations
Miss USA Crowns Nebraska’s Audrey Eckert Amid Leadership Overhaul
‘I Am Not Done’: Kamala Harris Signals Possible 2028 White House Run
NBA Faces Integrity Crisis After Mass Arrests in Gambling Scandal
Swift Heist at the Louvre Sees Eight French Crown Jewels Stolen in Under Seven Minutes
U.S. Halts Trade Talks with Canada After Ontario Ad Using Reagan Voice Triggers Diplomatic Fallout
Microsoft AI CEO: ‘We’re making an AI that you can trust your kids to use’ — but can Microsoft rebuild its own trust before fixing the industry’s?
×