The provisions introduced by the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998 protect most workers from being subjected to a detriment by their employer for making a protected disclosure of information in the public interest. Employees who are protected by the provisions may make a claim for unfair dismissal if they believe they have been dismissed for making a protected disclosure. Workers who are not employees may not claim unfair dismissal; however, if their contract has been terminated by the employer because they made a protected disclosure, they may instead make a complaint that they have been subjected to a detriment.
The following table details the number of claims accepted by the employment tribunal within the unfair dismissal category that contain an element of public interest disclosure. The figures for April to December 2008 are provisional and subject to change.
Financial year Single claims Multiple claims1 Total claims accepted 1998-99 1 — 1 1999-2000 128 37 165 2000-01 349 66 415 2001-02 445 89 534 2002-03 577 89 666 2003-04 645 113 758 2004-05 732 140 872 2005-06 818 219 1,037 2006-07 1,044 312 1,356 2007-08 1,189 313 1,502 2008-09 1,104 222 1,326 1 A multiple is any two or more claims which arise from the same set of circumstances. It could therefore be two or more claims made by different individuals against the one respondent, or potentially two or more claims made by the same individual against the same respondent. The figures show the total number of claims that were accepted as multiples.