Whistleblowing report 2023 to 2024

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is Britain’s independent statutory equality regulator and UN-recognised national human rights institution for England, Wales and reserved matters in Scotland. Our role is to make Britain fairer by enforcing the Equality Act 2010 and protecting human rights.

We became a prescribed body for whistleblowing in November 2019. This means that workers who are concerned that their employer is committing breaches of equality and human rights law can report their concerns to us. 

This report:

• describes what regulatory (litigation, enforcement and compliance) powers and levers we have and how we use them in the context of our whistleblowing role
• describes how we respond to the whistleblowing reports (disclosures) made to us
• gives information on the whistleblowing disclosures that were made to us between 1 April 2023 and 31 March 2024
• gives information on a category of disclosures reported to us through a call for evidence opened in July 2023

This report covers work undertaken during our Strategic Plan for 2022-25.

We received 211 whistleblowing disclosures between 1 April 2023 and 31 March 2024.

We determined that 41% of those disclosures were either outside our remit or did not include enough information to make a full assessment.

We are a strategic regulator with finite resources. Our approach is to use our legal powers only to tackle issues that advance one of our six priorities described in our Strategic Plan 2022–25 and in accordance with the relevant annual Business Plan.

We assessed the remaining 124 disclosures to determine whether they aligned with those priorities and reached the thresholds required in our litigation and enforcement policy. Of these, 109 (87.9%) did not merit further action by us on this basis, 11 (8.9%) related to ongoing work and were shared for intelligence purposes only and 1 (0.8%) was closed because additional information was requested from the whistleblower during the triage process but the information was not received.

In addition, we referred 3 (2.4%) of the disclosures for further assessment to identify the most appropriate response.

Of these, we:

• took action in relation to 2 disclosures
• decided not to take action in relation to 1 of the disclosures

In addition to the whistleblowing disclosures, we received 203 disclosures through our call for evidence to support ongoing regulatory action between 18 July 2023 and 31 March 2024. We considered these separately.

Who we are and what we do

We are Britain’s national equality body. We have been awarded an ‘A’ status as a National Human Rights Institution by the United Nations. As a statutory, non-departmental public body established by the Equality Act 2006, we operate independently.

We safeguard and enforce the laws that protect people’s rights to fairness, dignity and respect. We use our unique powers to challenge discrimination, promote equality of opportunity and protect human rights.

For more information, read:

• our Strategic Plan, which explains our goals and aims for 2022–25
• our Business Plan 2023-24, which describes our aims for the year and the projects we worked on in 2023–24

How we use our regulatory powers

The Equality Act 2006 gives us enforcement powers, including the power to:

• investigate an organisation or individual that we suspect is in breach of equality law
• enter into a formal, legally binding agreement with an organisation or individual to allow us to agree an action plan to prevent future discrimination

The Equality Act 2006 also gives us litigation powers. These powers let us:

• provide legal assistance to individuals making claims under the Equality Act 2010
• take, or get involved in, cases that will strengthen equality and human rights laws

We generally only use our litigation and enforcement powers to tackle issues that will advance our strategic priorities. These aims are described in our Strategic Plan 2022–25.

We carry out a robust assessment of the merits of each case and the probability of achieving the change that we would like to see. In litigation, we use our power to intervene only if we are satisfied that we will add value to the proceedings and assist the court in its decisions. We always act proportionately, balancing the scale and seriousness of the problem against the size and resources of the organisations involved.

If an issue relates to our priority areas, there are other factors we will consider when deciding whether to use our regulatory powers.

We will consider:

• the impact we will have and whether it justifies the expenditure of the time and money we will need to achieve it
• alternative ways of achieving the desired outcome
• whether we are best placed to act and, if so, whether we should do so in partnership with others (such as other regulators, inspectorates or civil society organisations)
• whether taking action would align with our other work, to increase our impact
• whether a successful outcome will preserve or strengthen the interpretation or application of equality and human rights law or risk setting an adverse precedent
• whether we are the most appropriate organisation to fund a case and whether there are alternative sources of funding available (for example, legal aid)

The greater the scale of the problem, across any or all of these considerations, the more likely we are to use our powers and levers.

We consider the following factors in doing so:

• the size of the issue (the number of people affected by it)
• its severity (the seriousness of the problem on a person or a group, including whether it affects those in vulnerable situations)
• its persistence (how long the problem has lasted)
• its prevalence (whether the same or similar issues are affecting people across multiple organisations or sectors)

We will consider the impact we might have on the issue by identifying:

• the change we want to see
• which of our powers we could use to bring about that change
• which of our powers will be most effective and proportionate
• action that may be taken by others

We consider scale and impact in England, Wales and Scotland and may decide to act in one nation but not the others.

For more information, our litigation and enforcement policy 2022–25 describes our legal powers, what we use them for and how we decide when to use them.

How we respond to whistleblowing disclosures

The information disclosed to us helps us to decide whether to examine an organisation’s compliance with equality and human rights law. We record and assess every disclosure we receive to decide whether to pursue regulatory action. When we do this, we also consider our:

• Strategic Plan
• Business Plan
• litigation and enforcement policy

We share our approach with every individual who makes a disclosure and it is also set out in our whistleblowing policy. In many cases, we only contact a whistleblower following our initial response if we require additional information from them.

Even if we do not act on a disclosed issue, we record the information we have received, including the name of the organisation (if it has been shared with us) and details of the issue. This enables us to analyse all the information we receive to identify any patterns, themes or emerging issues that might inform our future priorities.

Between 1 April 2023 and 31 March 2024, we received 211 whistleblowing disclosures.

This is an increase from the 153 whistleblowing disclosures we received between 1 April 2022 and 31 March 2023.

Initial assessment

62 of the disclosures (29.4%) were outside our remit. Most of these were unrelated to equality or human rights and some were outside our geographical jurisdiction.

25 of the disclosures (11.8%) did not include enough information for a full assessment and we were unable to contact the whistleblower.

The 124 total remaining disclosures (58.8%) could be assessed to determine whether they aligned with our strategic priorities and the criteria in our litigation and enforcement policy.

We are a strategic regulator with finite resources. Our approach is to use our regulatory powers only to tackle issues that advance one of our six priorities, as described in our Strategic Plan 2022–25.

We assessed the 124 disclosures that did not close after the initial assessment to determine whether they aligned with our strategic priorities and the criteria in our litigation and enforcement policy. 109 of these (87.9%) did not merit further action by us as the issues did not align with those priorities or criteria. However, these records will help us to identify emerging issues and future priorities. 11 of the disclosures that did not close after the initial assessment (8.9%) related to ongoing work and were shared for intelligence purposes only.  

We referred 3 (2.4%) of these disclosures to expert colleagues for further assessment to identify the most appropriate response.

In addition, 1 case (0.8%) was closed because additional information was requested from the whistleblower during the triage process, but the information was not received.

124 disclosures did not close after the initial assessment.

Approximately 83.1% of the disclosures related to discrimination or human rights breaches in the treatment of staff. For example, this included complaints about failures to make reasonable adjustments and sexual harassment in the workplace.

Approximately 12.1% of the disclosures related to discrimination or human rights breaches in the treatment of service users, customers or students. For example, this included complaints about race discrimination against customers and service users.

In approximately 4.8% of cases, it was unclear whether the disclosure related to the treatment of staff or service users, customers or students.

Of the 124 disclosures that did not close after the initial assessment, we identified:

• 162 separate equality or human rights issues relating to the treatment of staff
• 25 separate equality or human rights issues relating to the treatment of customers, service users or students
• 10 separate equality or human rights issues where the group to which the issue related was unclear or it related to someone other than staff, customers, service users or students

The number of separate issues raised is more than the number of disclosures received. This was because some whistleblowers raised more than one issue in the same disclosure.

Disclosures raised about the treatment of staff

162 disclosures were raised about the treatment of staff. The issues they relate to are set out in the following table.

Disclosures raised about the treatment of service users, customers or students

25 disclosures were raised about the treatment of service users, customers or students. The issues they relate to are set out in the following table.

Disclosures raised where it was unclear if the issue related to the treatment of staff or of service users, customers or students

10 disclosures were raised where it was unclear if the issue related to the treatment of staff or of service users, customers or students.

Number of issues raised by protected characteristic under the Equality Act 2010

Some of the 124 disclosures that did not close after initial assessment raised one or more issues relating to one or more protected characteristics under the Equality Act 2010. The spread of issues relating to different protected characteristics is set out in the following table.

These tables set out how many disclosures (of the 124 disclosures that did not close after initial assessment) did and did not include details of the whistleblower or their employer.

Worker details provided

Employer details provided

On 18 July 2023, we opened a confidential email hotline as part of a call for evidence to support ongoing regulatory action about sexual harassment.

The email hotline was not expressly characterised as a whistleblowing hotline. However, EHRC is a prescribed person. We received reports through the hotline that were from workers and raised concerns about breaches of equality or human rights law. As this email hotline had a specific focus and purpose, we are reporting data relating to it separately below.

In the period 18 July 2023 to 31 March 2024 (the end of the current reporting period), we received 203 reports to the hotline from workers reporting either sexual harassment, which was the subject of the call for evidence, or other acts of discrimination in breach of the Equality Act 2006.

Of those, 202 were in scope of the call for evidence and were used as an evidence base for the ongoing regulatory work in question.

One was out of scope of the call for evidence and was a report by a prospective worker about race discrimination. This did not merit further specific action by us, as the issues did not align with our strategic priorities or criteria, but it was recorded for intelligence purposes.