Court of Appeal considers 'public interest test' in whistleblowing legislation

On Monday of this week, the Court of Appeal handed down judgment in the case of Chesterton Global Ltd v Nurmohamed. In it, the Court had regard to the intention of Parliament in inserting a 'public interest test' into the provisions of the Employment Rights Act 1996 which provide protection to whistleblowers, namely that only those who make disclosures which are in the public, rather than their own private, interest should be protected. But the Court was very careful not to go beyond the Parliamentary intention, thereby preserving maximum protection for whistleblowers in England and Wales.

I have written a blog about the case which has been posted on my Chambers' website. See:

Despite the point I have made in this post, in the blog, I suggest that the Court of Appeal's decision has not provided a great deal of clarity to practitioners and Tribunals about what amounts to a disclosure which can reasonably be considered to have been made in the public interest. This absence of clarity must surely be the acceptable price of ensuring that no one other than the most clearly self-interested so-called whistleblower is excluded from statutory protection.