Isabelle Josie decided to go to the media after a junior civil servant, Raphael Marshall, reached out to the Foreign Affairs Select Committee with evidence of Foreign Office failings. Feeling “humbled” that a junior colleague had been brave enough to speak out, Josie gave an anonymous interview and leaked emails to the BBC to corroborate what he had said. Like so many other whistleblowers, she paid a heavy price for speaking out
Recently, the Chancellor made it known that he was not happy with the Financial Conduct Authority ‘s new proposals. Under the proposals, the regulator would publicly announce when they open an investigation into a firm – if they decided it was in the public interest to do so. They already have powers to do so, but only in exceptional circumstances.
Join us on Wednesday 5 June, 8:30-10:00AM, for a breakfast briefing in partnership with Slaughter and May to hear from Philippa O’Malley, Partner Slaughter and May, Moira Thompson Oliver, Senior Counsel Slaughter and May and Sybille Raphael, Legal Director at Protect on how to adopt and embed robust whistleblowing arrangements as part of your environmental governance strategy.
The most effective way to protect a whistleblower is often to shield their identity while investigating the concerns they have raised. If staff believe their confidentiality won’t be protected this can be stressful for the individual or make other staff reluctant to come forward in the future.
The whistleblowing charity Protect has been recognised as an accredited CPD (Continued Professional Development) provider for four of its instructor led training courses. With this quality of stamp of approval delegates to Protect’s training courses can attend training confident that they can develop and demonstrate their professional development enhancing their understanding and knowledge to help them make better decisions when receiving whistleblowing concerns.
From advertising and fashion to the music industry, every sector is now seemingly having its own #MeToo moment. One of the latest embroiled in scandal is the South Wales Fire and Rescue Service where matters have advanced so far that the Welsh Government has been forced to step in and take over. Another stark reminder that culture really matters and there needs to be a duty to investigate claims for all organisations.
In 2023, Protect significantly impacted the lives of thousands of whistleblowers by providing practical and legal advice on how to safely and effectively raise workplace concerns. The UK’s leading whistleblowing charity worked on 3047 total cases, a rise of 23% on 2022.
The Post Office Horizon scandal is one of Britain’s biggest miscarriages of justice – in this blog we examine the role of whistleblowers in bringing the scandal to light and the changes we would like to see to prevent future scandals of this kind.
If a whistleblower can’t disclose their concerns directly to an employer, or they have been ignored, or are not satisfied with their response, then they can escalate concerns to a relevant regulator to investigate. But, if your employer is a regulator, who do you raise concerns to?
Helena* worked in the distribution factory of a well-known food company. She was an agency worker, so effectively worked for both her agency and the distribution factory as both played a role in determining the terms of her engagement. At work, Helena noticed a culture of racism including racist language being used by senior members of staff, as well as working practices which disadvantaged Muslim workers.
