UK: government proposes new offence of failure to prevent fraud

The UK government has introduced a new failure to prevent fraud offence into the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill during its progress through the House of Lords. Once enacted, this will require HR in larger companies to review and update staff training and policies in order to be able to establish the proposed “reasonable … Read more

Spain: Definitive approval for the Spanish Whistleblower Law

On 21 February, Spain’s Official State Journal, the BOE, published Law 2/2023, of 20 February, on the protection of persons who report regulatory breaches and to combat corruption, which will enter into effect on 13 March. The Whistleblower Law, (i) transposes into Spanish legislation Directive (EU) 2019/1937 of the European Parliament and of the Council … Read more

Regulation in Focus EP8: Whistleblowing update

The latest edition of our Regulation in Focus podcast series features Jenny Andrews, an Of Counsel in our Employment team and Charles McGrath, a Senior Associate in our contentious FSR practice in London. Jenny and Charles remind listeners about the statutory and regulatory whistleblowing framework in the UK before summarising some interesting recent case law … Read more

Global Employment Risk: An interactive guide

Since the onset of the pandemic, our global employment team has been monitoring the level and changing nature of risks around the world.  Whilst some trends have accelerated i.e. whistleblowing regulations, there are some new and important developments that pose significant employment risks. We have mapped these across the major financial centers using an interactive … Read more

UK: dismissal for whistleblower’s manner or conduct may not be automatically unfair even if the whistleblower’s behaviour was not objectively unreasonable

Employers will welcome the decision of the Court of Appeal upholding the EAT’s decision in Kong v Gulf International Bank (summarised here).  Subject to any further appeal to the Supreme Court, the ruling confirms that an employer may be able to successfully defend a whistleblowing dismissal claim if it can show that its genuine reason … Read more