One of the UK’s most important parliamentary committees, the cross-party Public Accounts Committee, published a report on 1 August 2014, that found whistleblowers are a “crucial source of intelligence to help government identify wrongdoing.” While identifying the retaliation that UK government whistleblowers face, the Committee failed to mention one significant category of truthtellers altogether.

The Public Accounts Committee investigation was prompted by a separate report, Making a Whistleblowing Policy Work published by the UK’s National Audit Office in March 2014. Since the Public Accounts Committee scrutinises the efficiency of public spending, their hearing on 24 March and this month’s report focused on whistleblowing in the public sector and extended to discuss private and voluntary sectors where public services are outsourced.

The Committee found that the treatment of whistleblowers is often “shocking” and “appalling” and recommended that legal and counselling services be offered. The report acknowledges the bullying, harassment and victimisation many whistleblowers endure, and recognised that it takes “remarkable courage” for employees to come forward and raise concerns.

Furthermore, the report found there had been a “startling disconnect” between policies within government purporting to encourage whistleblowers and what happens in practice, where victimisation of whistleblowers is rarely punished. The Chair of the Committee, Margaret Hodge MP, noted that in a survey of Ministry of Defence employees, “only 40 per cent of respondents felt they would not suffer reprisals if they raised a concern.”

However, the disconnect between whistleblower protections in theory and reality goes even further than the Public Accounts Committee admits as their report overlooks the specific problems with intelligence whistleblowing. As such, its recommendations do little to protect some the most prominent and threatened whistleblowers today.

What protections do whistleblowers have in the UK?

In the UK, employees may blow the whistle outside the workplace and to a prescribed official body if their employer does not have a whistleblowing procedure; if they feel their employer would cover up their disclosure; if they expect unfair retaliation; or if the employer has not taken action after a disclosure has already been made.

The Public Interest Disclosure Act (PIDA, 1998) is designed to protect workers from employer retaliation when an employee blows the whistle in the public interest. However, it does not commit employers to respond effectively to whistleblowers’ disclosures and it does not prevent employers from “blacklisting” the whistleblower, harming future employment prospects. Moreover, this Act does not apply to those who are self-employed or volunteers, or to individuals who work under the Official Secrets Act (1989) in the government, military and intelligence communities.

In the UK, the Official Secrets Act protects official information and state secrets from public disclosure. The Act was revised in 1989 to remove whistleblowers’ right to a public interest defence for unauthorised disclosures. That is, any unauthorised disclosure of information is now automatically a punishable criminal act with no defence – even if the information released is deemed to be of significant public value.

In 2002, former MI5 officer and whistleblower, David Shayler, was prosecuted for informing media of the misconduct and several alleged crimes of the security services, including evidence of complicity in an illegal plot to assassinate Colonel Gaddafi, which failed but resulted in the death of innocent civilians. While it was acknowledged in court that Mr Shayler had no viable ‘official’ avenues to pursue his concerns, that his disclosures were made in the public interest and had put no lives at risk, he was found guilty and imprisoned nonetheless.

As a result of the 1989 Act, there are effectively no whistleblowing protections for employees of the UK’s security services. At present, they even lack freedom of speech within parliament. The parliamentary committee charged with oversight of the intelligence services – the Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) – exempts witnesses from the ‘absolute privilege’ of being able to give evidence in parliament without incrimination that applies to other parliamentary committees.

“The public interest defence should be reintroduced”

Annie Machon, a former intelligence officer who helped her ex-partner Mr Shayler in blowing the whistle on MI5, and a member of the Courage advisory board, told Courage the report was “welcome, if belated.”

Machon said: