Whistleblowing Policy for UK employers. Part IVA ERA 1996 compliant: qualifying disclosures, detriment protection, ERA 2025 update. From £9.99.
A Whistleblowing Policy sets out how workers can safely raise concerns about wrongdoing in the public interest and confirms that they will be protected from dismissal or detriment for doing so. Protection comes from Part IVA of the Employment Rights Act 1996 (inserted by the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998): a worker who makes a qualifying disclosure in the public interest has statutory protection from day one of employment, even if the concern turns out to be mistaken. Since 6 April 2026, under the Employment Rights Act 2025, sexual harassment is expressly capable of being a qualifying disclosure.
Any employer with workers benefits from a written Whistleblowing Policy. It is mandatory for regulated sectors — financial services, NHS bodies, legal practices — and expected by most sector regulators. A clear written procedure helps workers distinguish whistleblowing from a personal grievance, routes genuine public-interest concerns internally before they escalate, and demonstrates that concerns are taken seriously if a worker later claims victimisation.
The six categories of qualifying disclosure under Part IVA ERA 1996: criminal offences, breaches of a legal obligation, miscarriages of justice, danger to health or safety, damage to the environment, and deliberate concealment. The ERA 2025 addition of sexual harassment as a qualifying disclosure. The distinction between whistleblowing and a personal grievance. How to raise a concern internally, the alternative route if the concern is about the usual contact, confidentiality and anonymous disclosures, protection from detriment and retaliation, and the route to external disclosure to prescribed regulators.
A Whistleblowing Policy works alongside an Equal Opportunities Policy — to which it can cross-refer for sexual harassment concerns — and a Disciplinary and Grievance Policy, which governs personal complaints that fall outside the public-interest gateway.
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