Whistleblowing is defined in Chambers dictionary as "Giving information (usually to the authorities) about illegal and underhand practices". The Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998 (commonly know as the Whistleblowing Act or "PIDA") was passed in response to disasters and scandals such as the Bristol Royal Infirmary heart operations, North Wales child abuse, Matrix Churchill, Maxwell, Clapham Rail and Zebrugge affairs after each of which official enquiries revealed that workers had been aware of dangers but were too scared to sound the alarm. Attempts made in 1995 and 1996 to get Public Interest Disclosure Bills (popularly called "Whistle-blower Bills") through Parliament failed - see notes at Victimisation . The successful 1997 attempt which became the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998 started as a Private Members Bill introduced in the House of Commons on 18th June 1997 by Richard Shepherd MP, sponsored by the "Public Concern at Work" action group.

PIDA introduced new provisions into the Employment Rights Act 1996 as ss. 43A to 43L. These give legal protection to workers against suffering a detriment as a result of disclosing information relating to crimes, breaches of a legal obligation, miscarriages of justice, dangers to health and safety or the environment and to the concealing of evidence relating to any of these. Importantly, if the detriment is "dismissal" of an employee it does not count as a "detriment" for this purpose (see ERA 1996 s.47B(2)). Instead dismissal of an employee for making a protected disclosure is automatically unfair dismissal (ERA 1996 s.103A and see notes at Unfair dismissal/automatically unfair dismissals ).

There is no requirement for a worker to complete any particular period of employment in order to qualify for protection (see ERA 1996 s.108(3)(ff)). However the worker must act in good faith, believe in the truth of the allegation he or she is making and have reasonable grounds for believing that the information disclosed indicates the existence of one of the above problems.

The European Commission said in 2000 that it was setting up its own internal Whistleblowing arrangements (see 2000/11/29 - EC Press Notice DN: IP/00/1380 re internal whistleblowing). However it seems that the Commission is less than perfect at keeping its own house in order in that respect (see Marta Andreasen - wikipedia notes).

Quite apart from the whistle-blowing provisions introduced by the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998, employees are under an obligation to inform their employers of any work situation which is a serious and immediate danger to health and safety or which represents "a shortcoming in the employer's protection arrangements for health and safety" (Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, SI 1999/3242 reg 14(2) - and see notes at Unfair dismissal/automatically unfair dismissals/health & safety and/or at Health and Safety at work/civil liability ).

For general notes on anonymous evidence given by employees in unfair dismissal cases go to Unfair dismissal/anonymous information and for notes on "pension fund" whistleblowing by auditors and actuaries, see Pensions/whistleblowing . There is some useful guidance to relevant law on the semi-official BusinessLink whistleblowing website and there is an ACAS website on "Whistle-blowing".

See also notes at Victimisation and/or Acts of Parliament etc/Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998 .