Am I protected if I report wrongdoing at work?

The Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998 protects workers who make a qualifying disclosure. Two tests matter: the information must, in your reasonable belief, tend to show one of the specified categories of wrongdoing — criminal offences, health and safety dangers, or a miscarriage of justice among them — and you must reasonably believe the disclosure is in the public interest rather than made purely for personal gain. You do not have to be right, only reasonable.

Who you tell matters

• Internal disclosures to your employer are protected, and are the usual starting point. Follow the whistleblowing policy if there is one — though the policy cannot cut down your statutory rights, and you can go outside it where the internal route is not working or you fear retaliation.
• Prescribed bodies — the relevant regulator for the wrongdoing — are also protected recipients.
• The media is protected only in narrow circumstances: exceptionally serious wrongdoing, a reasonable belief that you would suffer detriment for going internally or to a regulator, or a real risk that evidence would be concealed. The threshold is much higher, so take advice before going public.

Anonymity is a practical trap. Protection depends on being identifiable as the person who made the disclosure, so a wholly anonymous report may leave you outside the statutory protections — even where an internal anonymous channel exists.

The protection you get

Dismissal for making a protected disclosure is automatically unfair regardless of length of service, and compensation in whistleblowing dismissal claims is not subject to the ordinary unfair dismissal cap. You are equally protected against detriment short of dismissal — demotion, exclusion, unwarranted disciplinary action.

Practical steps: record the wrongdoing and your disclosures in writing with dates, keep copies outside work systems where you can lawfully do so, and note anything that changes afterwards. If retaliation follows, notify Acas for Early Conciliation quickly — the tribunal deadline is generally three months less one day.

Finally, a settlement agreement cannot lawfully gag you: any clause purporting to stop you making a protected disclosure is void, even though confidentiality about the settlement terms themselves remains enforceable.