A slew of misinformation about whistleblowing erupted following the arrest of Julian Assange, the Wikileaks publisher. Some politicians rushed to defend Assange as a ‘whistleblower’ – but many of these have done very little to ensure that less high-profile UK whistleblowers have legal protection. They do a disservice to UK whistleblowers by claiming, in the context of requests to extradite Assange, that “in this country we have protection for whistleblowers”.
Because we do not.
The UK Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998 (PIDA) defines a whistleblower as a worker who raises certain concerns in the public interest. A ‘worker’ in this sense, based on evolving case law and amendments to the legislation, can include an employee, contractor, trainee or agency worker or a limited liability partner.
