TRW & Co · Employment, Pensions & Immigration
Whistleblowing Solicitors in London
Whistleblowing claims carry uncapped compensation, require no qualifying service and can make individual managers personally liable. Our whistleblowing solicitors London clients instruct advise organisations and workers on protected disclosures under Part IVA of the Employment Rights Act 1996, the new sexual harassment category, investigations, regulator reporting and the seven-day interim relief window.
Key pointSince 6 April 2026 a disclosure tending to show sexual harassment is an express category of protected disclosure, so a harassment complaint can now found both an Equality Act claim and a whistleblowing detriment or automatically unfair dismissal claim.
At a glance
Part IVA ERA 1996
Sections 43A to 43L define qualifying and protected disclosures; section 47B protects against detriment and section 103A against dismissal.
Sexual harassment now covered
From 6 April 2026 information tending to show sexual harassment is an express category of qualifying disclosure under section 43B.
No service, no cap
Dismissal for making a protected disclosure is automatically unfair from day one, and compensation for it is not subject to the statutory cap.
Seven days for interim relief
A dismissed whistleblower seeking continuation of their contract must apply within seven days of the effective date of termination.
Gagging clauses are void
Section 43J voids any term in a contract or settlement agreement that purports to stop a worker making a protected disclosure.
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What whistleblowing law covers in England and Wales
Whistleblowing law protects workers who disclose information about wrongdoing, and penalises employers and colleagues who punish them for it. As whistleblowing solicitors London businesses, boards and individuals instruct, we handle both sides: the organisation receiving a concern, investigating it and managing the person who raised it, and the individual deciding whether, how and to whom to speak up.
The legal consequences are significant. Dismissal for making a protected disclosure is automatically unfair, with no qualifying service and no cap on compensation. Individual managers can be personally liable for detriment. And for regulated firms, the handling of a concern is itself a matter of regulatory scrutiny.
Whistleblowing is also where employment law meets corporate risk. A disclosure about fraud, sanctions, safety or misconduct may trigger an internal investigation, a regulatory notification, a reporting decision under the failure-to-prevent-fraud offence and, eventually, an employment claim. Getting the sequence right matters.
When it becomes a legal question
The legal question starts as soon as someone raises a concern that could be a protected disclosure, whether in a formal speak-up report, a grievance, an email to a manager or a comment in an appraisal. Many disputes turn on whether that first communication contained enough information to qualify.
The legal framework: Part IVA of the Employment Rights Act 1996
The protections sit in Part IVA of the Employment Rights Act 1996 (sections 43A to 43L), inserted by the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998. They apply in England, Wales and Scotland. Northern Ireland has its own, broadly similar, legislation and a separate process, so cross-UK employers should check both.
What counts as a qualifying disclosure
Under section 43B, a qualifying disclosure is a disclosure of information which, in the reasonable belief of the worker, is made in the public interest and tends to show one or more of the following:
- a criminal offence;
- a breach of any legal obligation;
- a miscarriage of justice;
- danger to the health or safety of any individual;
- sexual harassment (added by the Employment Rights Act 2025 with effect from 6 April 2026);
- damage to the environment; or
- deliberate concealment of any of these.
It does not matter whether the wrongdoing occurred in the UK or abroad, or which country's law applies to it. The worker need not be right, but the belief must be reasonable. The public interest test means that a purely personal complaint, such as a dispute about one's own contract, will not usually qualify, although a complaint about a breach affecting many workers may.
Who the disclosure is made to
A qualifying disclosure becomes a protected disclosure when made through a permitted route: to the employer (section 43C), to a legal adviser in the course of obtaining advice (section 43D), to a prescribed person or body such as the FCA, HMRC, the Health and Safety Executive or the Serious Fraud Office (section 43F), or, under stricter conditions, more widely (sections 43G and 43H). Disclosures to the media are protected only in limited circumstances; GOV.UK warns that in most cases a worker who goes to the press loses protection.
Who is protected
Protection extends beyond employees to workers, agency workers, LLP members and certain others under the extended definition in section 43K. Job applicants are generally not protected, except in the NHS under specific regulations.
Remedies
- Detriment (section 47B). Workers must not be subjected to any detriment on the ground of a protected disclosure. Co-workers can be personally liable, and the employer is vicariously liable unless it took all reasonable steps to prevent the conduct.
- Automatically unfair dismissal (section 103A). Applies where the protected disclosure is the reason or principal reason for dismissal. No qualifying service is required and compensation is uncapped.
- Interim relief (section 128). A dismissed employee can apply for an order continuing their contract until the final hearing, but must apply within seven days of the effective date of termination.
- Gagging clauses void (section 43J). Any provision in an agreement between worker and employer, including a settlement agreement, is void in so far as it purports to stop the worker making a protected disclosure.
A tribunal can reduce compensation by up to 25% where a disclosure was not made in good faith, but bad faith does not remove protection altogether. Every whistleblowing solicitors London team should flag that distinction early, because it affects valuation rather than liability.
Recent reform: sexual harassment disclosures and longer time limits
Two Employment Rights Act 2025 changes now in force affect every whistleblowing case. According to the government's implementation timeline, disclosures tending to show sexual harassment became an express category of qualifying disclosure from 6 April 2026. Previously such complaints usually had to be framed as a breach of a legal obligation or a risk to health and safety.
From 1 October 2026 the time limit for most Employment Tribunal claims rose from three to six months. GOV.UK guidance notes that where employment ended before 1 October 2026, the three-month limit may still apply. Later in 2027, the reduction of the ordinary unfair dismissal qualifying period to six months and the removal of the cap on the compensatory award for dismissals from 1 January 2027 will narrow the practical gap between ordinary and whistleblowing dismissal claims. Our Employment Rights Act 2025 tracker follows each date.
Corporate criminal law has also raised the stakes. The failure-to-prevent-fraud offence under the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 came into effect on 1 September 2025 for large organisations. Government guidance on the offence treats effective speak-up arrangements as part of reasonable fraud prevention procedures, so how an organisation responds to concerns can affect its defence.
Treat every concern as potentially protected until you have analysed it. The mistake that costs most is deciding early that a complaint is "just a grievance", then managing the individual in a way that later looks like retaliation. Separate the investigation of the concern from any performance or conduct process involving the person who raised it.
Key decisions for organisations and individuals
The whistleblowing solicitors London clients rely on will help them make the early decisions deliberately, because those decisions are hard to reverse.
| Route | Statutory basis | Conditions in outline |
|---|---|---|
| Employer or person responsible | Section 43C | Reasonable belief that the information tends to show a relevant failure and is in the public interest |
| Legal adviser | Section 43D | Made in the course of obtaining legal advice |
| Prescribed person or body | Section 43F | Reasonable belief that the matter falls within the regulator's remit and that the information is substantially true |
| Wider disclosure | Section 43G | Additional conditions, including reasonableness and, usually, prior disclosure or fear of detriment or concealment |
| Exceptionally serious failure | Section 43H | Failure of an exceptionally serious nature and disclosure reasonable in all the circumstances |
For organisations
Decide who owns the concern, who investigates, whether a regulator or law enforcement body must be told, and whether legal privilege should be claimed over the investigation. Decide how the whistleblower's identity will be protected and who needs to know it. In FCA-regulated firms, check the whistleblowing requirements on the FCA whistleblowing page for firms and the role of the whistleblowers' champion.
For individuals
Decide what to disclose, to whom and in what form. Writing it down, identifying the wrongdoing and explaining why it matters to others helps establish a qualifying disclosure. Taking confidential documents outside the organisation can create separate legal risk, so take advice before doing so. Charities such as Protect offer free confidential advice, and our employment law team advises individuals as well as employers.
Sector overlays
Some sectors add rules on top of the statute. Banks, insurers and other firms within the FCA's whistleblowing regime must maintain internal arrangements, appoint a whistleblowers' champion and tell staff that they can report to the regulator. Health, education, charities and listed companies face their own regulator expectations and governance codes. As whistleblowing solicitors London regulated clients instruct, we map these overlays at the outset so that the employment response and the regulatory response do not contradict each other.
Public bodies and those performing public functions also face freedom of information and audit scrutiny, which can bring internal reports into the public domain. Assume that investigation reports may eventually be read by a tribunal, a regulator or a journalist, and draft them accordingly. That discipline is one of the most useful things whistleblowing solicitors London organisations retain can bring to an internal process.
Process and timeline: from concern to claim
- Receive and record. Acknowledge the concern, record exactly what was said and when, and confirm how confidentiality will be handled.
- Triage. Assess whether it may be a protected disclosure, whether there are regulatory or criminal reporting obligations, and whether privilege should be engaged.
- Protect the individual. Brief managers on non-retaliation, limit knowledge of the whistleblower's identity and pause any unrelated adverse action pending review.
- Investigate the substance. Set terms of reference, preserve data and interview witnesses. Our corporate investigations team leads investigations involving fraud, bribery or sanctions.
- Act and feed back. Remediate, report to regulators if required, and give the whistleblower as much feedback as confidentiality permits.
- Manage any dispute. If a detriment or dismissal claim is threatened, Acas early conciliation must precede a claim, and an interim relief application must be made within seven days of dismissal.
- Tribunal. Whistleblowing claims are fact-heavy and usually involve longer hearings, detailed disclosure and evidence from several managers. Our employment tribunal team handles these from start to finish.
Documents and evidence
Whistleblowing cases are often won or lost on chronology: what was said, who knew, and what happened next. The documents that matter most are usually these.
- The disclosure itself, and any earlier conversations or messages that may contain information amounting to a disclosure.
- The speak-up or whistleblowing policy in force at the time, and evidence that staff were told about it.
- Investigation terms of reference, interview notes and the outcome report.
- Records showing who knew about the disclosure, and when. Knowledge of decision-makers is often decisive.
- Performance, disciplinary and redundancy records for the whistleblower before and after the disclosure.
- Regulatory correspondence, including any notification to a prescribed person.
- Settlement drafts, checked to ensure confidentiality clauses carve out protected disclosures.
Data protection also applies. Subject access requests are frequently used in whistleblowing disputes, and identities of whistleblowers and witnesses need careful handling. Our data protection team advises on redaction and disclosure.
Risks and common mistakes
Dismissing a whistleblower for "unrelated" performance reasons
Employers sometimes have genuine performance or conduct concerns about an individual who has also blown the whistle. The tribunal will ask what the real reason for the dismissal was. If decision-makers knew about the disclosure and the concerns were not documented beforehand, the inference of retaliation can be strong. Where a process must continue, use decision-makers who do not know of the disclosure where that is genuinely possible, rely on contemporaneous evidence, and take advice before acting. Remember that ordinary unfair dismissal protection for employees with six months' service arrives for dismissals from 1 January 2027 as well.
Identifying the whistleblower
Revealing a whistleblower's identity, even inadvertently in an investigation notice or email chain, can cause detriment and may breach regulatory rules in financial services. Limit the circle of people who know, use anonymised references in documents, and consider whether witnesses need to know the source at all. Where the whistleblower is anonymous, do not attempt to unmask them. Hunting for the source of a concern is a common factual basis for detriment claims and is viewed poorly by regulators.
Settlement terms that try to silence disclosures
Section 43J makes void any contractual term that purports to preclude a protected disclosure, and since October 2025 agreements also cannot prevent victims of crime from making certain disclosures. Confidentiality clauses should expressly carve out protected disclosures and reports to regulators and law enforcement. Overreaching wording does not protect the organisation; it simply fails, and if it is published it suggests a cover-up. Our settlement agreements team drafts compliant terms.
Missing a regulatory or criminal reporting obligation
A concern about fraud, market abuse, money laundering or sanctions breaches may trigger obligations independent of employment law, such as suspicious activity reporting, regulatory notifications or self-reporting decisions. Delay can be more damaging than the underlying issue. Map the obligations at triage, decide who owns each one, and document the rationale for every decision about whether and when to report. Our financial services regulation team advises on regulator engagement.
Individuals overreaching in gathering evidence
Whistleblowers sometimes forward large volumes of confidential documents to personal email or record meetings covertly. That can breach contractual and data protection duties and may justify separate action, even where the underlying disclosure is protected. Tribunals look at whether the conduct was reasonable and necessary. Individuals should take advice before collecting material, and employers should respond proportionately, distinguishing the disclosure from the manner of gathering evidence.
The disclosure is often the easy part of the case. The hard part is proving why the worker was treated as they were afterwards.
Cross-border whistleblowing
Section 43B expressly covers wrongdoing abroad, so a London-based worker reporting misconduct in an overseas subsidiary can be protected. International groups therefore need speak-up arrangements that work across jurisdictions, with clear rules on who investigates and which law governs evidence handling.
EU entities in a group are subject to the EU Whistleblower Protection Directive (Directive (EU) 2019/1937) as implemented locally, which imposes requirements on internal reporting channels and feedback that UK law does not. A single group policy should meet the stricter requirement where staff are spread across the UK and EU.
For groups headquartered in Bangladesh, the Gulf, Singapore or China, local law may offer weaker or different protection, and local data, secrecy or labour rules can limit cross-border investigation. Whistleblowing solicitors London subsidiaries instruct should coordinate with local counsel before documents or witnesses move between jurisdictions. TRW & Co's offices in Dhaka, Singapore and Dubai help us manage that coordination directly.
How our whistleblowing solicitors London team helps
TRW & Co's London office is authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. We advise organisations, boards, audit committees and individuals. Where advocacy in the higher courts is required, we instruct specialist counsel.
Speak-up framework reviews
We review whistleblowing policies, reporting channels, triage protocols and board reporting against UK law, regulatory expectations and failure-to-prevent-fraud guidance.
Triage and investigations
We help assess whether a concern is a protected disclosure, structure privileged investigations and advise on regulatory and law enforcement reporting.
Managing the whistleblower
We advise managers on non-retaliation, confidentiality and any parallel performance or disciplinary issues, so decisions are defensible.
Advising individuals
We advise workers on making a disclosure, choosing the right recipient and protecting their position, and on claims if detriment follows.
Tribunal claims and interim relief
We conduct detriment and automatically unfair dismissal claims, including urgent interim relief applications within the seven-day window.
Compliant settlements
We negotiate settlements with confidentiality terms that preserve protected disclosures and regulatory reporting rights.
To discuss a concern in confidence, contact our London office at Holborn Gate, 330 High Holborn, London WC1V 7QH, email info@trw.co or call +880 1779 127165. You can also view all our practice areas or read our guide to whistleblowing protection.
Checklist for decision-makers
Use this list to test your arrangements. Whistleblowing solicitors London audit committees engage will usually ask the same questions.
- Does the policy cover sexual harassment disclosures expressly, reflecting the 6 April 2026 change?
- Is there at least one reporting route that bypasses line management and senior leadership?
- Is there a documented triage step that considers regulatory, criminal and failure-to-prevent-fraud implications?
- Are managers trained not to retaliate, and to separate concerns from performance processes?
- Are whistleblower identities protected in investigation documents and data handling?
- Do settlement and contract templates carve out protected disclosures and reports to regulators and law enforcement?
- Does the board or audit committee receive regular, anonymised reporting on concerns and outcomes?
- For international groups, do the arrangements satisfy the EU Directive where relevant and work with local law elsewhere?
Our discrimination and harassment team works alongside us where a concern also raises Equality Act issues, and whistleblowing solicitors London clients can involve both teams from the outset.
Frequently asked questions
01What makes a disclosure "protected"?
It must first be a qualifying disclosure: a disclosure of information which the worker reasonably believes is in the public interest and tends to show a relevant failure, such as a crime, breach of a legal obligation, danger to health and safety, environmental damage, sexual harassment or concealment of any of these. It then becomes protected if made through a permitted route, such as to the employer, a legal adviser or a prescribed regulator. Wider disclosures, including to the media, are protected only under stricter conditions.
02Do I need two years of service to bring a whistleblowing claim?
No. There is no qualifying period for a claim that you were dismissed because you made a protected disclosure, or that you suffered detriment because of one. Workers who are not employees, such as some contractors, agency workers and LLP members, can bring detriment claims. Compensation for whistleblowing dismissal is not capped. This is separate from ordinary unfair dismissal, where the qualifying period is due to fall to six months for dismissals from 1 January 2027.
03How long do I have to bring a whistleblowing claim?
For claims arising on or after 1 October 2026, the general time limit is six months from the dismissal or the act of detriment, extended by Acas early conciliation. GOV.UK guidance notes that if employment ended before 1 October 2026 the earlier three-month limit may apply. Separately, an application for interim relief after dismissal must be made within seven days of the effective date of termination. Those deadlines are short and strictly applied, so take advice as soon as possible.
04Can I report a concern anonymously?
Yes. You can report to your employer or a prescribed person anonymously, but they may be unable to investigate fully without more information, and it can be harder to prove later that you were treated badly because of a disclosure the decision-maker did not know you made. An alternative is to give your name but ask for confidentiality, which the recipient should make every effort to respect. Employers should not try to identify an anonymous whistleblower.
05Can a settlement agreement stop me blowing the whistle?
No. Section 43J of the Employment Rights Act 1996 makes void any term in an agreement between a worker and employer, including a settlement agreement, in so far as it purports to stop the worker making a protected disclosure. Since October 2025 agreements also cannot prevent victims of crime from making certain disclosures, for example to the police or a qualified lawyer. A confidentiality clause can still validly restrict other kinds of disclosure, so read the drafting carefully with your adviser.
06What should an employer do when it receives a whistleblowing report?
Acknowledge it, record exactly what was said, and treat it as potentially protected. Triage it for regulatory, criminal and failure-to-prevent-fraud implications, decide who will investigate and whether to engage legal privilege, and protect the whistleblower's identity. Brief relevant managers on non-retaliation. Investigate the substance, remediate where needed and give feedback where possible. Keep any unrelated performance or disciplinary process separate and well documented.
07Is a complaint about my own contract a protected disclosure?
Usually not on its own, because the worker must reasonably believe the disclosure is in the public interest. A purely personal dispute about your own pay or terms will often fail that test. But a complaint can be in the public interest even if it concerns your contract, for example where the same breach affects many workers, involves serious wrongdoing, or concerns a large or public-facing organisation. Tribunals look at the number affected, the nature of the wrongdoing and the identity of the wrongdoer.
Sources and official materials
- Employment Rights Act 1996, Part IVA — Protected disclosures, sections 43A to 43L
- Employment Rights Act 1996, section 43B — Qualifying disclosures, including sexual harassment
- GOV.UK: Whistleblowing for employees — Who is protected, who to tell and time limits
- GOV.UK: Prescribed people and bodies — Regulators to whom protected disclosures can be made
- Acas: Whistleblowing at work — Guidance for workers and employers
- FCA: Whistleblowing for firms — Requirements for regulated firms
- GOV.UK: Failure to prevent fraud offence guidance — Reasonable prevention procedures since 1 September 2025
General information only, current as at 21 October 2026. It is not legal advice and does not create a solicitor–client relationship. It reflects the law of England and Wales unless stated otherwise; Scotland and Northern Ireland have separate legal systems, and the law changes frequently. Check current official sources and take advice on the facts of your matter.