1. WB
UK
Fighting for Justice
for Whistleblowers
Courage | Selflessness | Integrity | Accountability | Leadership | Conscience | Ethics | Perseverance
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Whistleblowers UK POLICY STATEMENT
Whistleblowers UK notes that the British Public have become visibly aware of the
topic of whistleblowing over the past two years and that the cultural acceptance of
the term and connotations of being a ‘whistleblower’ have also markedly changed,
predominantly through publicity surrounding healthcare, child abuse/child protection
and banking/financial sector disclosures. The Mid-Staffordshire NHS Foundation
Trust PI, United Lincs Hospital, Winterbourne View and Orchid View incidents have
energised the politicians and the Public. Publicity about Whistleblowers being
bullied, coerced and unfairly sacked and Gagging Orders imposed with ‘payoffs’
made from NHS funds (Taxpayer sourced but not notified) has made it harder for the
Government to ignore the low paid whistleblowing worker / frontline nurse. The
same issues exist in other work / commercial sectors but are not as easily seen, or
attract such public interest because there hasn't been such an obvious link between
maltreatment of a Whistleblower and the impact on the General Public.
After much pressure by Whistleblowing Charities such as Patients First, Compassion
in Care and ‘Heal the NHS’, gagging clauses in the NHS have now been banned.
But this is only the first skirmish: we now want an end to bullying managerial
practice, an end to unjust internal disciplinary processes and a closing down of the
money supply for payoffs – especially within the Public Sector. Taxpayer’s money
should NOT be used to cover up failures in the care process or management
incompetence. It was clear from the National Audit Office report, presented to the
Public Accounts Committee, (July 2013), that the Department of Health and Treasury
had no idea how much public money was being spent in this way. The next major
step is to ensure that the inspectors and regulators now interview Whistleblowers as
part of the inspection process.

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Fighting for Justice
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Courage | Selflessness | Integrity | Accountability | Leadership | Conscience | Ethics | Perseverance
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The Whistleblower Experience
Whistleblowers UK is unique in having a whistleblowing membership drawn from
across all sectors of British society (Commercial/ Industrial, Financial, Defence and
Security, Healthcare and NHS). Whistleblowers UK has contributed to the
Parliamentary Committee on Banking Standards, Defence Select Committee review
of Service Complaints Commissioner/ Ombudsman, Francis Review of
Whistleblowing in the NHS, Public Concern at Work’s Whistleblowing Commission,
the BIS Departmental Whistleblowing Review and, latterly, is advising on
whistleblowing aspects to the Child Sex Abuse Inquiry. In so doing, Whistleblowers
UK has recognized the commonality of some key issues, regardless of the diversity
across the membership and has developed the following strategy in recognition of
these key needs:
Whistleblower Protection
The whistleblowing process can entail three crimes not one: there is the initial
culpable crime of abuse or wrongdoing that is observed and reported; there is the
crime of individual or corporate cover up and there is the crime of coercion to ensure
the silence or cowing of the whistleblower. The very act of blowing the whistle makes
the whistleblower vulnerable to attack, bullying and isolation. Therefore any effective
mechanism to protect the whistleblower must be initiated before the act, in order to
define and ‘register’ a point in time and ‘steady state of affairs’ against which all
subsequent actions and circumstances can be measured. Whistleblowers UK is
proposing a national Whistleblower Registration Scheme, which effectively is a
point at which the whistleblower is registered with an independent external registrar,
the clock started and effective protection offered right from the outset of the process.
The Company / Organization being reported on is then put on notice that a
registration has been made and that all actions thereafter will be subject to

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UK
Fighting for Justice
for Whistleblowers
Courage | Selflessness | Integrity | Accountability | Leadership | Conscience | Ethics | Perseverance
Page3
reappraisal with a legal requirement to safeguard the status, employment and
character of the whistleblower.
The registration process might well be extended to enact the same legislation for
whistleblowers that is successfully found within the Proceeds of Crime Act. This
establishes a legal requirement for a named and trained Proceeds of Crime officer
who is allegedly culpable and can be charged with criminal offences within the
organization / corporate company. The biggest problem for whistleblowers is to
voice legitimate concerns without incurring any recriminations, abuse or subsequent
detriment. A legally named Whistleblower contact in organisations would be seen as
part of the registration process, an internal Guardian Angel, who is legally
responsible for ensuring that the whistleblower is protected, whilst still in the same
employment, and with the same role and responsibilities. This will put the onus on
the employer to behave appropriately and ensure that all of their employees do so as
well. Above all, whistleblowers are more than likely to be saving money and
reporting legitimate concerns for the benefit of the employer and thus viewed as a
company asset not a liability. We have Health and Safety, and Human Resources so
why not a legally responsible Whistleblower officer?
A further Corporate/Organisational Registration Scheme could be implemented
as an extension of the concept of Whistleblower Friendly Organisations to provide a
recognized Personnel ‘standard’ or ‘Kitemark’. Organisations would subscribe to the
register as a clear signal that they are willing to both support whistleblowers and,
importantly, employ whistleblowers. This would also provide a source of job
opportunities, against which whistleblowers could apply in the knowledge that they
are not going to be ‘blackballed’ in the first part of the assessment process, and a
practical method for organisations to demonstrate their commitment to the support
and protection of whistleblowers.

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Fighting for Justice
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The Employment Tribunal and Court Process
Whilst Whistleblowers UK welcomes a tightening of the law regarding vicarious
liability by employers under the ERRA in June 2013 for the actions of all of their
employees in regards to treatment of whistleblowers. Our experience is that
whistleblowers lose in the Employment Tribunal and other Court processes.
Whistleblowers UK does not believe that PIDA works effectively or that it should
be held up in its current from as an example of good legislation. Whistleblowers UK
also does not believe the Employment Tribunal system is working to protect
whistleblowers effectively. The overwhelming experience of our Whistleblower
members is that the laws meant to protect employees who wish to report abuse and
fraud have failed to do so and whistleblowers end up worse off by entering into an
unbalanced conflict in the ET process. The imbalance in financial resources, and
consequent access to professional legal advice and support makes it an unfair
battle. Corporate or medium/large scale organizations can afford to draw out the
legal process to wear away an individual’s funds (normally personal or family
savings) in order to break the ability of the whistleblower to pursue his/her case
effectively.
Therefore, Whistleblowers UK seeks an alternative process whereby whistleblowers
can have equal access to a fair, informed and open authority where they can voice
their concerns, represent their case against any unfair behaviour, (subsequent to the
registration of their status as a whistleblower (see above) and seek compensation for
the stresses, strains and detriment caused to them by the act of blowing the whistle.
Such a hearing should be held before a (clearly) independent arbiter and without
legal representation by either side so that it is a fair and balanced playing field /
battle ground. Individual costs should be absolutely minimised and the cost of the
arbiter/ support structure should not be from the Public Purse but be found out of a
fund made up from a percentage of the fines levied upon abusive/ corrupt

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UK
Fighting for Justice
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wrongdoers of culpable organizations. One might even call such an organization the
Office of the Whistleblower (UK) following the US precedent in part.
The Cost of Blowing the Whistle
Being a whistleblower is not a career option; one is thrown into the role through
circumstance, observation of wrong-doing and a decision to do something about it. If
senior management and corporate culture were more inclined to accept and respond
to internal complaints properly then there would be no need to 'blow the whistle'
externally. Moreover, if complainants/ whistleblowers were acclaimed not vilified, and
looked after not demeaned, then Society might recognize the courage of the act, not
look askance at a potential troublemaker who upsets the status quo and disrupts the
harmony of the workplace.
The true cost of blowing the whistle is found in the stresses and strains of ‘going
outside the normal process’, the ensuing workplace isolation, bullying and coercion
to keep silent, the loss of job/career and subsequent inability to find work within the
same industrial sector. Then there are the secondary effects: the reduction in salary
or remuneration, the erosion of personal/ familial savings, the expensive ET/ Court
process, the wear and tear on the family and an inevitable impact on physical,
mental and psychological health and well-being. The lower the pay level, and
consequent savings, of the whistleblower at the start of the process, the greater the
impact of reduction in livelihood and consequent effect on personal health. The true
cost of whistleblowing is very hard to prove – especially by an impoverished
individual facing the wealth and expert legal advice that major corporations and large
organizations have access to and can afford.
Compensatory Damages
‘True’ whistleblowers are not motivated by thoughts of financial gain.
Whistleblowing IS about righting injustice and not about lining one's pockets. But let
us also recognize the great price that most whistleblowers pay for their act of

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UK
Fighting for Justice
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courage and try to find some way to compensate them for the cost of their actions
and put them back on their feet. It is misleading for Governments and Regulators to
present a black and white case for Financial Incentives, as some massive bounty
scheme based upon the US system, as the only solution. It induces the idea of
whistleblowers ‘doing it for the money’ and leaves a major point of vulnerability
where a defence barrister could easily try to undermine a whistleblower’s credibility
by questioning their very motivation. David Green, Director of the Serious Fraud
Office has recently made this very point – not as a measure of his lack of support for
such a policy, but rather as a point of worry from a prosecutorial viewpoint about the
potential undermining of vulnerable witnesses by sharp defence counsels.
The Home Office’s Organised and Serious Crime Strategy document, published on 7
October 2013 to coincide with the launch of the UK’s new National Crime Agency,
made reference to the fact that the UK Government would be considering the case
for incentivised whistle-blowing in instances of fraud, bribery and corruption, as well
as potentially providing UK citizens with qui tam rights allowing private citizens to
sue, on the Government’s behalf, companies and individuals that were defrauding
the Government. It is argued that a reward system for whistle-blowers would have
the knock-on effect of forcing companies to implement better compliance
programmes to prevent wrongdoing and might encourage more corporates to self-
report corruption.
Whistleblowers UK is seeking a means of "compensation for risks undertaken by
Whistleblowers" and believes that terms such as ‘Bounty’, ‘Financial Incentives’ or
‘Reward’ are wholly inappropriate. Compensation should recognize the risks taken
by the whistleblower, the importance and originality of the information supplied and
the contribution the whistleblower has made in bringing the wrongdoer to account.
Any compensation should be found not from the Public Purse but be found out of a
fund made up from a percentage of the fines levied upon abusive/ corrupt

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Fighting for Justice
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wrongdoers of culpable organizations. Such Compensatory Damages should NOT
be judged or levied by the Employment Tribunal process but might well be
administered by the same organization as indicated above (the Office of the
Whistleblower (UK)) which itself should be established and paid for from the same
source of ‘Fines’ funding. Initial seed funding might be needed from Central
Government but this could be repaid by a percentage of the same fines funding (see
US precedent). WBUK also seeks to redress the imbalance of compensation
between whistleblowers from different industrial sectors. This could be achieved by
the establishment of a Central Compensatory Fund, again found out of a fund made
up from a percentage of the fines levied upon abusive/ corrupt wrongdoers of
culpable organizations. This would provide a means by which a central pool of
funding can allow a more balance scheme of whistleblower compensation across all
sectors (eg to allow some level of compensation for a nurse or healthcare worker
without imposing on the Public Purse). Our suggestion is of four way (25%) split of
fines accrued from the successful prosecution of wrongdoers: 25% to the initiating
Whistleblower; to a Whistleblower Central Pool to fund damages to whistleblowers
from the Public Sector; 25% to the Office of the Whistleblower to cover
administrative costs, so that it is not a burden to the Public Purse and a final 25% to
the Treasury, because they’ll never let you out of giving something back to the
central funds. The UK Government Anti-Corruption Plan, (Dec 2014), formally
tasked the Home Office and BIS Department to consider what more can be done to
incentivise and support whistleblowers in cases of bribery and corruption. It further
tasked the Home Office to consult on measures to strengthen the protection of police
whistleblowers and BIS to evaluate the implementation of the (sparse)
whistleblowing provisions introduced through the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform
Act 2013. Whilst these are limited aims at present, they do demonstrate that the
profile and topics of whistleblower compensation and protection has now been raised

8. WB
UK
Fighting for Justice
for Whistleblowers
Courage | Selflessness | Integrity | Accountability | Leadership | Conscience | Ethics | Perseverance
Page8
to a degree where they attract public attention and, thereby, serious political capital
requiring the investment of policy makers’ time and effort.
Combatting Whistleblower Isolation
The Whistleblowers UK telephone and email Helpline receives calls from across all
public and private sectors and provides active support and (legal, psychological
counselling, and media) advice to current whistleblowers. The greatest benefit of the
Whistleblowers UK Helpline is the opportunity for a stressed and lonely
whistleblower to talk to someone who listens, understands, and can offer
appropriate, experiential advice. An essential issue which is often missed is the
isolation felt by the whistleblower after they have made their disclosure to the
relevant authorities. Too often, the whistleblower is left uninformed about the
progress of an investigation, handling of the complaint/ disclosure, how or even if
any remedial steps have been taken and whether the act of disclosure has had, or
will have, any positive outcomes. We suggest that the Office of the Whistleblower
might also have a responsibility for handling information to be supplied back to the
whistleblower and ensuring regular feedback to lessen the inherent isolation that
currently ensues.
Ian Foxley
Chairman
16th
November 2015
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Whistleblowers UK (WBUK) is a not-for-profit membership organisation formed in
2012 by British whistleblowers and their supporters, in order to offer advice and
assistance to other whistleblowers, and those who might be thinking of 'blowing the
whistle', from those who have already undergone the experience.
www.wbuk.org