Why the top priority for the next PM should be repealing PIDA

At the core of WhistleblowersUK is a single belief, whistleblowers need better protection in the UK when they report wrongdoing. Whether it is financial malfeasance or life threatening situations in the NHS, citizens need to be able to speak out.

The Public Interest Disclosure Act (PIDA) was noble in its beginning, even world leading for its time. However the consistent victimisation of whistleblowers in the UK has demonstrated its clear failure to protect whistleblowers.

A common reason for whistleblowers failing at an employment tribunal is they expect to have to prove what they disclosed was true. In reality, they are confronted with a completely separate assessment about whether they were dismissed for a legitimate reason. PIDA includes no mechanism by which whistleblowers' concerns can be investigated, leaving it to the accused companies, overwhelmed regulators, or on rare occasions the police. Predictably, concerns are rarely acted upon.

The lack of protection PIDA provides to workers is worrying, but it is worsened by the fact you must be a worker for the organisation. If you are a parent with legitimate concerns, a school governor, or self-employed in the gig economy; you will not be protected under PIDA. It's clear that PIDA no longer reflects the modern world of work or supports the legitimate concerns of people an organisation serves.

The Whistleblowing Bill seeks to resolve these issues having repealed PIDA with four policy goals;

• Full and legitimate investigations into wrongdoing reported by whistleblowers

• Protection for every person, no matter their relationship to the organisation

• Establishing the Office of the Whistleblower - a clear point of contact for whistleblowers

• Educating everyone on their rights to raise concerns and their responsibility to listen

Not only would this mean better treatment for whistleblowers, experts in compliance and fraud detection estimate roughly 45% of fraud is detected by whistleblowers who act for free. At a time when your average person on the street is feeling the harsh bite of the cost of living, we should be ensuring our money is being put to good use. Proper protection for whistleblowers could be worth upwards of £20 billion a year to the UK public sector alone. We literally cannot afford to ignore these changes.

We live in a world where whistleblowers are victimised, but we do not have to. The Whistleblowing Bill will ensure that public trust can be restored in the organisations which exist today.