‘Whistleblower’ is a widely used term. However, what it means and the protections a whistleblower might receive are by no means universal. Whistleblowers have been a regular presence in the news over recent years, from involvement in the Panama Papers, the FIFA scandal, Cambridge Analytica, President Trump and even Jeremy Kyle. However, the circumstances in which a ‘whistle is blown’ are not always as headline grabbing as these examples. In very simple terms, a whistleblower can be an employee who, in relatively mundane circumstances, decides to report certain types of wrongdoing in the belief that such disclosure is in the public interest.

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