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Ignoring whistleblowers costs the taxpayer hundreds of millions of pounds

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New research reveals the financial impact to the taxpayer of failing to listen to whistleblowers. The Post Office Horizon scandal, the Countess of Chester/ Lucy Letby scandal and the collapse of the construction firm Carillion alone have so far cost the taxpayer £426 million. 

In the first analysis of this kind, the whistleblowing charity Protect has analysed three major scandals of recent years in which a lack of accountability and a failure to listen to whistleblowers have been officially acknowledged. It found that failing to act when whistleblowers spoke up cost the government (at a conservative estimate): 

  • £178m in the Post Office IT Horizon scandal 
  • £39m in the Countess of Chester/Lucy Letby scandal 
  • £209m in the Carillion collapse scandal. 

The figures include the costs of subsequent public inquiries, delays to essential work and compensation. 

The money lost could have funded the construction of 14 new schools. Or it could have been spent on employing 1440 doctors or 2580 nurses for five years.  

Elizabeth Gardiner, chief executive at Protect, says: 

“Whistleblowing failures come at a high price – to the whistleblower, to the employer and, too often to the taxpayer. It is Central Government that is left picking up the pieces of avoidable scandals. 

At a time when public finances are under pressure, the government cannot afford the cost of avoidable harm in the public sector. Yet employers are still not listening to and investigating whistleblower concerns and are failing to create cultures where whistleblowers can speak up safely and effectively.”  

Commenting on the research, Joe Powell MP, the chair of the APPG on Anti-Corruption & Responsible Tax, said: 

“The impact of these scandals on individual people cannot be overstated, it is shocking and heart-breaking. As the chair of the APPG on Anti-Corruption and Fairer Taxation I know how important whistleblowers are in uncovering economic crime. Without them we would be blind to this wrongdoing, and too often whistleblowers are ignored.  

This powerful research shows how essential whistleblowers are, and the role they can play in stopping scandals from escalating and costing the government and taxpayers millions of pounds. We need to make sure employers and industry regulators are doing more to make sure whistleblowers are listened to – and appropriate action is taken. 

In this work funded by the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust, Protect has sought to calculate how much whistleblowing failures are routinely costing the public purse. The calculations have been made using an economic model that works on the basis that all whistleblowing scandals share a basic timeline.  

Financial costs are incurred before and after someone blows the whistle and fall into three broad categories: Unavoidable, Avoidable, and Fallout. 

  • Unavoidable costs precede any whistleblowing event(s) and are incurred irrespective of the action taken by an employer. 
  • Avoidable costs are accrued because the whistleblower has been ignored or their concerns have not been properly acted upon. 
  • Fallout costs follow the scandal being made public and are associated with the variety of investigatory processes into the failings that led to it.
     

Former Post Office sub-postmaster Mark Baker said:  

“Beyond the human cost of the Post Office Horizon scandal this research makes it clear that listening to whistleblowers could also have saved the taxpayer millions of pounds.  

Sub-postmasters, like me, knew there were problems. We challenged the system and were dismissed. It’s taken years to get our voices heard and the truth exposed. Sub-postmasters need and deserve full whistleblowing legal rights to make sure they can raise issues in the future with the confidence that they will be protected.” 

Many other examples could have been chosen from the Infected Blood scandal to the Grenfell Tower Fire tragedy. 

Elizabeth Gardiner, chief executive at Protect, says: 

“Whistleblowers are a vital early warning system, but the problem of failing to listen to staff is not confined to these three scandals. Forty per cent of the 3,000 callers to Protect’s legal Advice Line in 2024 said that their concerns had been ignored. If the Government is to avoid unnecessary costs of whistleblowing failures in the future, then action is needed to change employers’ behaviours.”  

Protect is calling for reforms to improve whistleblowing in the UK: 

  • The introduction of a duty on employers to investigate whistleblowing concerns. This is vital to closing the accountability gap. 
  • Expanding the range of people in the workplace who qualify for whistleblowing protection (for example sub-postmasters). 
  • Reframing whistleblowing and its importance to central Government. This may mean giving the policy lead to Cabinet Office rather than focusing solely on employment rights. Whistleblowing affects every sector and every Government department and its value to upholding standards in public life, and holding the powerful to account should not be underestimated. 
Download report

Notes to editors: 
For more information please contact:
Mark Ellis, Head of Commmunications
press@protect-advice.org.uk

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