All employers must have a Whistleblowing Policy in place to show that they comply with the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998. The Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998 provides all employees with employment protection if they disclose information of wrongdoing within their organisation.

A Whistleblowing Policy encourages employees to raise concerns about illegal activities and bad business practice internally thus preventing the organisation from receiving negative publicity.

This Whistleblowing Policy template complies with the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998 and the Bribery Act 2010 since it includes provisions dealing with the need to report any corruption related activity. It is also up to date with the changes introduced by the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013. 

The Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013 amended certain provisions of the Employment Rights Act 1996.  As from 25 June 2013, a disclosure will not be protected unless it is, in the reasonable belief of the worker making the disclosure, "in the public interest". Also, the requirement that protected disclosures are made “in good faith” has been removed; now a  disclosure no longer has to be made "in good faith" to be protected, but an employment tribunal may reduce a worker's compensation by up to 25% if it appears to the tribunal that a protected disclosure was not made in good faith. Furthermore, the law introduced both personal liability on employees who victimise their whistleblowing colleagues, and vicarious liability on the employer for the same. Whistleblowers will now have the right not to be subjected to any detriment by any act or deliberate omission by another worker or agent of their employer as a result that he or she has made a protected disclosure.

This Whistleblowing Policy is fully comprehensive, it sets out guidance and procedures for employees to follow should they encounter malpractice or wrongdoing at work. The Policy requests that any information of wrongdoing should be disclosed internally first to a responsible officer. Also it states that employees are given protection when they make such disclosure.

The Whistleblowing Policy contains the following clauses:

1. Introduction
2. Aim and Scope of this Policy
3. Matters to Report
4. Who Can Raise a Concern? 
5. Procedures 
6. Restrictions 
7. Protection of Employment 

This Whistleblowing Policy is in Microsoft Word format, written in plain English, easy to use and edit.