Employment Law Guide 2026: Additional whistleblowing protections

In its manifesto and Plan to Make Work Pay, the Government indicated its intention to strengthen protections for whistleblowers. However, additional protections afforded by the ERA 2025 are fairly limited in scope. The ERA 2025 provides that a disclosure that sexual harassment has occurred, is occurring or is likely to occur will be a “qualifying disclosure” for whistleblowing purposes. This change is expected to come into force in April 2026.

As a result, workers who make a disclosure relating to sexual harassment will be protected from detrimental treatment because of that disclosure and the dismissal of an employee for doing so will be automatically unfair. However, the worker/employee will still need to satisfy the usual rules on protected disclosures in order to benefit from these protections, including a reasonable belief that their disclosure is made in the public interest and in terms of who they make the disclosure to (with disclosures to the employer, prescribed persons, and/or legal advisers likely to be protected, but some wider disclosures to the press, or on social media only protected in limited circumstances).

Implications/Action points

• Update whistleblowing policies to reflect the change
• Ensure you have clear channels for reporting sexual harassment
• Ensure those to whom reports are made understand the whistleblowing implications and the risks of automatic unfair dismissal and detriment claims.