Whistleblowing

As the independent regulator for pharmacists, pharmacy technicians and pharmacy premises in Great Britain, we receive concerns from members of the public, patients and other individuals and organisations about a wide range of issues. We review all concerns and decide what action, if any, we need to take.

There are some types of concerns which if they meet specific criteria, may mean that the person who raised the concern is eligible to receive certain legal protections. These concerns are called whistleblowing concerns.

What is whistleblowing?

Whistleblowing, or speaking up as it is also called, is where a worker or employee, former employee, trainee, or agency worker raises a concern about wrongdoing in the public interest. Self-employed pharmacists working in the NHS are also considered workers for whistleblowing purposes.

Workers can raise whistleblowing concerns with their employer or, if they feel unable to do so, they can tell someone outside their organisation known as a ‘prescribed person’.

A worker may want to raise a whistleblowing concern with a prescribed person because they are worried they will suffer negative treatment if they raise it with their employer, or because they have raised the concern previously with their employer and no action was taken.  

The legal requirements relating to whistleblowing are found in the Employment Rights Act 1996 as amended.

The GPhC is a prescribed person for whistleblowing concerns as set out in the Public Interest Disclosure (Prescribed Persons) Order 2014 which means that workers may notify us of wrongdoing they have witnessed.

For a concern to be eligible for protection as a whistleblowing concern, the following factors must be satisfied:

1. The wrongdoing must be in the public interest which means it must affect others, for example patients or the public.
2. The worker must hold a reasonable belief that the information they have provided to us is true.
3. The wrongdoing must relate to one or more of the following criteria which may occur within the UK or elsewhere:

• A criminal offence has occurred, is occurring or is likely to occur.
• Someone has failed to comply with a legal obligation, is failing or is likely to fail to comply with a legal obligation.
• There has been a miscarriage of justice, a miscarriage of justice is occurring or is likely to occur.
• The health and safety of any individual has been endangered, is being endangered or is likely to be endangered.
• Damage has been caused to the environment, is being caused, or is likely to be caused.
• Deliberate attempts to conceal or cover up wrongdoing in any of the above categories have occurred, attempts to conceal or cover up are occurring or are likely to occur.

Provided the factors set out above are met, the worker who has told us of the wrongdoing may be eligible for legal protection if they are dismissed from work or suffer some other negative treatment due to telling us about the wrongdoing.

Please note the wrongdoing raised by the worker will not qualify as a whistleblowing concern and the worker will not be eligible for legal protection for raising the concern, if in raising the concern the worker commits an offence.

Our role is to decide whether we believe a concern raised constitutes whistleblowing and to take appropriate action. Please note that we are not responsible for deciding whether a worker who has raised a whistleblowing concern with us should receive protection from unfair dismissal or any other form of negative treatment. This is a decision that will be made by the Employment Tribunal.

For the wrongdoing to be reported to us, rather than another prescribed person, it must relate to the functions that we are responsible in law for performing.

At the time of telling us about the wrongdoing, the worker must reasonably believe both that the information they are sharing with us is substantially true and that the wrongdoing they are telling us about is about relates to matters we are legally responsible for.

We can be contacted about concerns relating to the following issues:

• The healthcare services provided at or from pharmacies registered with us.
• The fitness to practise of pharmacists and pharmacy technicians.
• Failing to comply with our legal framework which includes the Pharmacy Order 2010 and our Rules, the Medicines Act 1968, and the Poisons Act 1972.
• The registration or revalidation activities of pharmacists, pharmacy technicians or pharmacy owners.
• The education and training of pharmacists and pharmacy technicians, student pharmacists, foundation training pharmacists and trainee pharmacy technicians.
• Failing to comply with our standards, policies and guidance.

Issues that don’t normally meet the whistleblowing criteria

Personal grievances such as workplace disputes and employment issues do not ordinarily meet the legal requirements for whistleblowing concerns, unless they raise issues which satisfy the wider public interest requirements. 

To raise a whistleblowing concern with us please go to the Reporting Concerns page on this website and complete the Report a Concern online form, which will be sent to us electronically. Alternatively, you can telephone our contact centre on 020 3713 8000 to tell us about your concern.

If you raise a whistleblowing concern with us, you can choose to do so anonymously, however this may mean that we are not able to investigate the concern. Alternatively, you can tell us who you are, and request that we keep this information confidential. We will treat the information you provide to us as confidential, and we won’t share it without having lawful authority to do so. Please note that for us to be able to look into the concern(s) properly, we will usually need to disclose some information about the wrongdoing to the individual or organisation concerned.

When considering whether to report a concern you should find out your employer’s policy on raising concerns or ‘whistleblowing’ and follow this whenever possible. You should normally raise the concern with your employer first, before taking it to a regulator or other organisations. If you are not sure whether or how to raise a concern, you should get advice from one of the organisations listed within the 'Other sources of information' section below and read the guidance on reporting concerns on this website.

When we receive a whistleblowing concern, we will review it and decide whether it meets the criteria for us to record it as a ‘protected disclosure’. This is the term used to describe a concern which meets the whistleblowing legal requirements.

When a concern is recorded as a protected disclosure it means the worker raising the concern may be eligible for legal protection from being unfairly dismissed or suffering some other form of negative treatment because they spoke up about the issue(s).

We will also consider whether we are able to investigate or take any other action in response to the issues raised in the concern.

All prescribed persons have a legal responsibility to publish an annual report confirming the whistleblowing concerns they receive from workers within a 12- month period and any action they have taken in relation to the concerns. We do not include any information in our annual report that would identify the worker who raised the concern with us, their employer, or the person(s) the concern is about.