This World Whistleblowers’ Day 2022, we’re all ears

20 June 2022

World Whistleblowers’ Day (23 June 2022) aims to raise global public awareness in combating corruption.

It’s important that employers aim to achieve a strong and positive speak-up culture.

Employees should know where to find their organisation’s whistleblowing policy and how to raise a concern.

Our message on this World Whistleblowers’ Day 2022 is that whistleblowers will be listened to, and should feel safe to come forward.

If you are a manager, you should be fully aware of your organisation’s policy so that you can respond appropriately when a whistleblowing concern is raised.

What is whistleblowing?

Whistleblowing is where an employee passes on information – “blows the whistle” – about wrongdoing.

Wrongdoing could cover a wide range of subjects. Within the scope of whistleblowing, this could include:

• A criminal offence
• Failing to comply with a legal obligation
• Health or safety breaches / danger
• Miscarriage of justice
• Environmental damage
• Failing to report or deliberately concealing any of the above

You can raise a concern under whistleblowing law if you have a reasonable suspicion that one of the above might be happening.

Personal grievances and complaints are not usually covered by whistleblowing law and policies.

Raising awareness of whistleblowing

According to a survey by Protect, 31% of respondents did not know how to raise a whistleblowing concern at work.

46% of respondents did not even know if their employer had a whistleblowing policy. These figures show why we think it’s important to raise awareness for World Whistleblowers’ Day.

Whistleblowing law and policies

Employees are protected by the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998. All organisations should have a whistleblowing policy in place which may also provide further protections.

For example, volunteers and trustees are not covered under the legislation. But most policies will provide protections for those workers to raise a concern under whistleblowing.

This is one of many reasons it’s vital to have a whistleblowing policy and procedure in place, and to promote it regularly to staff.

Managers should be fully aware of their organisation’s policy so that if a whistleblowing concern is raised, you know how to respond appropriately.

Veritau’s client councils’ policies can all be found in our whistleblowing policy directory.

How to raise a concern

You should feel safe to raise a whistleblowing concern at your workplace.

In the first instance, we would always recommend consulting your organisation’s policy before raising a concern.

Policies for core Veritau clients are listed in our directory. If you don’t see yours here, please see our guidance for employees who are not our core clients.

Whistleblowing policies should explain what is included under whistleblowing, and how to raise a concern.

Often the advice will be to speak to your line manager before calling Veritau’s confidential hotline.

Where this isn’t possible, or it is not appropriate to the concern, you can contact Veritau on: 0800 9179 247 or [email protected]

Further advice, guidance and support

• Protect (formerly Public Concern At Work) provides free confidential advice on how to raise a concern on 020 3117 2520.
• Contact the NSPCC or Ofsted for concerns about children at risk of abuse.
• Your whistleblowing policy – if your organisation has one – should have further details about who to contact if you are not satisfied with any responses.

Resources and downloads

Download our “we’re all ears” poster:

The Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998:

Contact us

Veritau conducts a wide range of investigations. This includes whistleblowing allegations, fraud and corruption, misconduct, breaches of contract, and more.

You don’t need to have an annual support contract with us – we can support you with one-off investigations and projects. Read more about our whistleblowing services

For academies and non-maintained schools, we provide a specialist whistleblowing support service.

Speak to a member of our team: [email protected] | 01904 552943