Araft of legislative changes have been taking place to contribute to the fight against fraud.
Successive laws have for instance expanded the scope for corporate liability for economic crime, most recently with the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 introducing failure to prevent fraud offences on 1 September 2025.
Will a reform of whistleblowing laws form part of this picture?
Context
Whistleblowing in the UK is currently governed by the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998 ("PIDA"), and campaigners have long called for reform.
PIDA provides protection only to workers and only once they have been subject to a detriment. Whistleblowers are left vulnerable to potentially significant consequences from making a protected disclosure, and their only recourse is to the Employment Tribunal under employment law. There are no effective mechanisms for allegations of wrongdoing to be investigated, often leaving serious failures ignored while whistleblowers reap the consequences.
A series of bills seeking to reform whistleblowing laws have been introduced in both the House of Commons and the House of Lords in recent years but fell each time awaiting a second reading. These are previous Office of the Whistleblower Bills in 2020 and 2021, as well as the Protection for Whistleblowing Bill in 2022 and two Whistleblowing Bills in 2022 and 2024.
The Bill
In December 2024, Gareth Snell MP introduced the Office of the Whistleblower Bill (the "Bill") in the House of Commons. The aims of the Bill are to establish an independent Office of the Whistleblower (the "Office") to protect whistleblowers and whistleblowing, which would:
- set, monitor and enforce standards for the management of whistleblowing cases,
- provide disclosure and advice services,
- collate data on whistleblowing declarations,
- direct whistleblowing investigations, and
- order redress of detriment suffered by whistleblowers.
The Bill will now progress to a second reading in House of Commons on 11 July 2025. This will coincide with Whistleblowing Awareness Week in Westminster, a series of talks supported by WhistleblowersUK and sponsored by Baroness Kramer.
Baroness Kramer introduced both previous Office of the Whistleblower bills, short documents providing that the Office would have powers to:
- give direction to, and monitor activities, of relevant bodies including as to confidentiality and the use of disclosed information;
- consult on amending or replacing PIDA;
- act as a point of contact for individuals who wish to make a disclosure they believe to be protected under PIDA;
- form and maintain a panel of accredited legal firms and advisory bodies to advise and support whistleblowers;
- maintain a fund to support whistleblowers; and
- provide financial redress to individuals whose disclosure is deemed by the Office to have harmed their employment, reputation or career.
The Bill is likely to contain similar provisions.
The future
It remains to be seen whether the Bill will progress into law and in what terms. The establishment of the Office would be an important first step towards reforming the current law on whistleblowing and encouraging a culture of speaking out about wrongdoing.
Other proposals for reform championed by campaigners such as WhistleblowersUK include specialist tribunals to determine outcomes in whistleblowing cases, criminal sanctions for those who act unlawfully against whistleblowers, expanding protections to cover every citizen and financial incentives for whistleblowers.
The latter topic has been the subject of much debate. The United States in particular runs several whistleblower reward programmes, which have resulted in an upward trend in reporting, including by whistleblowers based in the UK.
While the concept has faced resistance in England, the Competition and Markets Authority and His Majesties Revenue and Customs ("HMRC") have been offering rewards for some time. The latter has announced a US-style scheme anticipated this autumn offering financial incentives to whistleblowers of up to 25% of any additional tax revenue recovered from enforcement action linked to the information provided.
In February 2024, the director of the Serious Fraud Office, Nicholas Ephgrave, announced his support for a whistleblower rewards scheme in the UK. Such a scheme, combined with a reform of PIDA and greater protections for whistleblowers, would be a significant step forward in combating fraud and economic crime in the UK.
Conclusion
A reform of whistleblowing laws in the UK is on the horizon, and sorely needed. While any future legislative changes will need to be adapted to, this is of relevance now.
Fostering an anti-fraud culture and robust reporting procedures are key fraud prevention measures which are inherently valuable to any organisation, as well as providing defences to corporate criminal offences.
Organisations should not wait for a change in the law to take steps to both obviate the need for whistleblowing, and have appropriate procedures to deal with it if it occurs.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
