News

Protect along with delegates from the EU Commission, national authorities and civil society organisations attended the Whistleblowing International Network (WIN) and Transparency International EU hosted webinar on the EU Whistleblowing Directive. In 2019, the European Union adopted a ground-breaking Directive to ensure comprehensive and coherent protection of whistleblowers across Europe. The 27 EU Member States implementing the ... Read more

The National Guardian’s Office leads, trains and supports a network of Freedom to Speak Up Guardians providing learning and striving for cultural change on speaking up matters in NHS Trusts in England. The role of Freedom to Speak Up Guardians (FTSUGS) and the National Guardian, Dr Henrietta Hughes, were established in 2016 following serious failures ... Read more

Protect has welcomed the decision by professional services firm EY to drop its appeal in the case brought against the firm by whistleblower and former EY partner, Amjad Rihan. The case concerned allegations that EY had covered up the adverse findings of a sustainability audit into the Dubai Gold trade, including evidence of money laundering and ... Read more

Protect will be taking part in the national day of refection and one minute’s silence on March 23 at midday to reflect on the lives lost in the pandemic one year on – and to also thank the many whistleblowers who spoke out on Covid-19 concerns. Chief Executive Liz Gardiner said, “We will join the ... Read more

The long-awaited Sheldon review into child sexual abuse in football makes disturbing reading.  While the abuse is historic, the report is clear that lessons can still be learned.  There are some strong recommendations about safeguarding training from Board level to the young people and their parents, about establishing a child-first culture and about developing greater ... Read more

One rule for one, and one for another is fitting when comparing Parliamentary privilege between Westminster and Holroyd, for as it stands, Scottish MPs are very much unprivileged. This week in Parliament, MP David Davis spoke about the Holyrood inquiry investigating how the Scottish Government handled sexual harassment complaints against former First Minister Alex Salmon.  ... Read more

A new interactive whistleblowing investigation course, looking at best practice handling and how to avoid the common pitfalls, is now available to senior managers responsible for internal arrangements and whistleblowing culture. Protect’s Development Director Jon Cunningham, said, “How an organisation responds to a whistleblower can be critical to ensuring staff trust and confidence in the … Read more

The Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced in his Budget, the creation of a new Covid-19 taskforce – the Taxpayer Protection Taskforce – to investigate and sanction fraudulent abuses of Covid-19 relief schemes. Whilst Protect welcomes this response to tackle fraud against taxpayers, we would also like to call on the government to follow whistleblowing best practice, particularly by ensuring whistleblowers who speak out about furlough fraud, do not get penalised.   At the ... Read more

A report by the International Bar Association and the Government Accountability Project, examines the successes and shortcomings of whistleblower laws in 38 countries. The report, Are Whistleblowing Laws Working? A Global Study of Whistleblower Protection Litigation,which began in 2018, examines the strength of national laws on paper, compared with consensus international best practice. It found although almost a ... Read more

After the long-awaited appeal, Protect welcomes the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Uber BV v Aslam as a striking victory for Uber drivers in the UK - and potentially workers within the wider gig economy. The Court unanimously dismissed Uber’s appeal and upheld the first instance decision that Uber drivers are not independent contractors, but are indeed ... Read more

We welcome Elena Cornaro who joins us as a Legal Adviser after two years working at charity Working Families. Elena has a master’s in Human Rights Law with Distinction from SOAS and an undergraduate degree from Cambridge. She said, “For me, the importance of protecting whistleblowers is two-fold – it’s extremely important to provide safeguards … Read more

Our 2020 Impact Report, published today, shows our Advice Line team have supported 3,845 whistleblowers in 2020 - compared to 3,188. Overall, this is a 20% increase in cases. Protect Chief Executive Liz Gardiner said, "The advice we give to individuals has the potential to stop wrongdoing and harm in their workplaces – with an ... Read more

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has once again been asked to intervene in the case of whistleblower Jonathan Taylor – currently being held against his will in Croatia where he has been since July last year. Mr Taylor blew the whistle on corporate corruption and bribery in the oil and gas industry worth over $275million. He ... Read more

In an open letter, whistleblower Jonathan Taylor asks why authorities in Monaco and Croatia continue to detain him. " I am a whistleblower. When working at oil platform company SBM Offshore in Monaco, I blew the whistle on a $275 million international network of bribes to secure oil contracts around the world.  This was back in ... Read more

The recent report, Progress on tackling the sexual exploitation and abuse of aid beneficiaries, by the International Development Committee, has found abuse of beneficiaries to be rife with the aid sector and the last safe haven for perpetrators. The report also found that when victims or whistle-blowers try to report abuse, little meaningful action follows, ... Read more

We, the undersigned Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) partners, whistleblowing, human rights, transparency and journalist organisations are alarmed by the ongoing extradition proceedings against Jonathan Taylor in Croatia.  On 4 January 2020 the Dubrovnik County Court again ruled to extradite Jonathan to Monaco.  In October 2020, the Croatian Supreme Court had partially sustained his appeal ... Read more

Protect backs proposals by spending watchdog, the Public Accounts Committee for HMRC to publish the names of firms claiming furlough by the end of January, as a way to help stop fraud and abuse of the scheme. The scheme has paid the wages of more than 9m workers at a cost of £46 billion – … Read more

Protect’s Advice Line will close early at midday on 24 December until 4 January 2021. Anyone in need of urgent advice during this period can still email us at whistle@protect-advice.org.uk, and a member of the Advice Team will aim to respond as soon as possible. For all other queries, the Advice Team will be in … Read more

A Law Commission report to ensure public officials are properly held to account for misconduct in their roles, has been published. The consultation examined the common law offence of Misconduct in Public Office, which carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment, but has never been put on the statute book by Parliament. The current law … Read more

Protect welcomes Sybille Raphael as its new Legal Director who will supervise our increasingly busy Advice Line  - which has seen a 37% rise in calls this year - and co-ordinate our legal case work and policy work. Sybille, an experienced solicitor and employment law specialist, leaves her previous role as Head of Legal Advice ... Read more

Pressure on the UK Government to intervene in the case of whistleblower Jonathan Taylor - being held against his will in Croatia - continues. The Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) partners, (of which Protect is a part of) made up of whistleblowing, human rights and transparency organisations, and international jurists has written the following letter ... Read more

Important questions have been asked by MPs this week in the House of Commons and Peers in the House of Lords regarding whistleblower Jonathan Taylor, who is being held against his will in Croatia. Caroline Nokes – Jonathan’s local MP - asked the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs ‘what steps the ... Read more

The legal team for whistleblower Jonathan Taylor detained in Croatia and facing extradition to Monaco - on charges which have already been thrown out by the Monaco Correctional Court - is calling on the UK Government to intervene.  This week the UK has again stated that it is unable to interfere in the Croatian and ... Read more

Research by Protect has found 41% employees with Covid-19 concerns were ignored by their employers and 20% of whistleblowers were dismissed for raising concerns.  As the furlough leave scheme draws to an end, Protect’s report, The best warning system: Whistleblowing during Covid-19 demonstrates the role whistleblowers can play in revealing where employers are fraudulently claiming ... Read more

Protect, as the UK’s whistleblowing charity, supports whistleblowers from all sectors who call our Advice Line for support. Many are health and care sector workers. We also work with organisations to help employers get whistleblowing at work right. Whistleblowers are doing their bit to speak up, but we’d like to see far more employers ‘wise ... Read more

The Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) partners, (of which Protect is a part of) made up of whistleblowing, human rights and transparency organisations, and international jurists welcome the decision of the Supreme Court of Croatia to revoke the first-instance court decision, which allowed for the extradition of whistleblower, Jonathan Taylor to Monaco. While the case ... Read more

The second reading of Dr Philippa Whitford’s Public Interest Disclosure (Protection) Bill 2019-21 took place in the House of Commons on Friday, 25 September and received cross-party support with Dr Whitford MP saying,“This is not a party political issue; whistleblowing exists in every sector, in every nation. We should recognise the need to deal with … Read more

This Friday, 25 September, the second reading of the Public Interest Disclosure (Protection) Bill 2019-21, a private members bill put forward by Dr Philippa Whitford MP of the Scottish National Party, will take place. If you care about whistleblowers, and think that the law needs to change, please urge your MP to attend the debate. … Read more

 Protect is hosting a Whistleblowing Masterclass aimed at insurance sector professionals on 8 October 9:30am – 1:30pm. Taking participants though a highly informative, interactive programme with break out sessions, we enable each person to learn from examples and case studies specific to the insurance sector. There will be opportunities to network with each other in … Read more

Protect features as the first guest on Whistleblowing Now and Then,  a new podcast co-hosted by Anna Myers, Executive Director of WIN (Whistleblowing International Network) and Vigjilenca Abazi, Assistant Professor of European Law at Maastricht University. The new podcast focuses on the most important issues of the day for whistleblowing, featuring interviews with experts, whistleblowers and … Read more

Protect has written to Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab calling on him to intervene in the case of Jonathan Taylor – a UK whistleblower who was arrested on holiday in Croatia on charges he denies. The 51 year-old lawyer from Southampton was arrested on 30 July 2020 and informed he was the subject of an Interpol … Read more

HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) has come under scrutiny in recent months, with reports of staff feeling intimidated, harassed and unsupported to raise concerns, in addition to escalating reports of dangerous activity and unrest in prison populations. A parliamentary debate in March 2020 on Prison Staff: Health and Safety highlighted many of these issues. … Read more

It’s widely acknowledged the UK’s whistleblowing law, the Public Interest Disclosure Act (PIDA, 1998) is in urgent need of reform. More people need to be protected, victimisation of whistleblowers has to stop and - crucially - the wrong doing or concern needs to be investigated – which currently PIDA is silent on. Whilst easy to ... Read more

Protect are pleased to support workers by taking part in the Mayor of London’s Employment Rights Hub, equipping London’s workforce with knowledge about their rights at work and how to enforce them. In partnership with London-based civil society organisations, the Greater London Authority have produced twelve short videos answering frequently asked questions from Londoners about their … Read more

A report by the University of Greenwich examining employment tribunal outcomes between 2015-18 has revealed stark findings for women who whistleblow – that they are less likely to be represented or succeed. The report, Making Whistleblowing Work, commissioned by the All Party Parliamentary Group for Whistleblowing, examined 600 whistleblowing cases. The findings highlight the well-established … Read more

Protect has joined with  an international consortium of whistleblowing, human rights, and civil society campaigners calling for the immediate release of Jonathan Taylor, a whistleblower detained in Croatia as a result of an arrest notice issued by Monaco (see our news story here.…) . The letter  criticises employers who use such legal actions to stop … Read more

Protect has been successful in its calls to see HMRC re-open its fraud reporting hotline which has reopened after being closed since the start of the pandemic in March. We lobbied back in May for HMRC to re-open its fraud hotline, briefed politicians and the APPG (All Party Parliamentary Group) on Whistleblowing on the issue … Read more

Whistleblower Jonathan Taylor – who Protect has supported since 2015 – has been arrested at Dubrovnik Airport whilst in Croatia for a week’s holiday with his wife and three teenage children. Jonathan Taylor, 51, a lawyer from Southampton was arrested on 30 July and informed he was the subject of an Interpol Red Notice at … Read more

Policy Officer Laura Fatah represented Protect as a panellist at online event ‘To blow the whistle or not? A symposium on complicity and compliance in economic and social wrongdoing’ hosted by the University of York scholars James Killen, Zoë Porter, and whistleblower Ian Foxley. The event showcased the latest research in the field of whistleblowing and … Read more

We are pleased to see the Government give reassurance to whistleblowers raising concerns about Furlough Fraud.  Neither the proposed powers (in the Finance Bill) to recover money paid illegally through the scheme (formally called the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme) nor fraud charges will be levelled at those who raise these concerns. Background Furlough fraud makes … Read more